Before Time Began
by BananaBirdNova
Summary: By Bananabird. A crew aboard a spaceship leave Earth with the mission to save humanity, but little do they know that they're about to become part of something much bigger. The human and Cybertronian species have a lot more in common than what anyone may ever know.
1. The Launch

Author's Notes: Just a fair warning, for a while this story will contain only human OC characters (*_le gasp_* the horror!). I know that's a deterring factor for many readers, but I promise you they won't be OC's for the entire story as they will soon become... not OCs? I'm sorry that's vague, but I don't want to give anything away. However, I will say that if you're looking for a story about any popular and/or major characters, this is not the story for you. Once canon characters do come into this story, they're not necessarily the ones people usually write about. To give you a hint for what's coming, this is an origin story. Although this story is primarily AU, it's a bit of a mix between the G1 and Aligned, and maybe Movie, universes.

I hope I didn't scare very many people away! All I ask is you give the story a chance. Get to know the characters and maybe you'll be able to guess what's coming for them. I promise it's exciting! At least, I'm excited about it, and Nova seems to be too (we've spent many hours talking about the characters in this story). Which reminds me, thank you Nova for, as always, helping me develop this story and nagging me (in a good way ;) ) to keep working on it! It wouldn't be what is is without you!

* * *

><p>It was a cold night, the skies were clear and the stars pulsed in the inky sky. A young boy, no older than thirteen years of age, sat on the dewy grass that covered a hill and, with his head tilted back, gazed at the twinkling quilt so far above him. It was hard to find a place on Earth nowadays where you could see the stars at night, what with the light pollution from the cities that now blanketed the Earth. This particular spot was actually surrounded by development, but was just far enough away from urban areas to allow a little light from the stars to penetrate the atmosphere.<p>

He always enjoyed watching the stars. His favorite thing about them was that they were always the same, especially in recent years; they were the only stable thing in this world now. It was the month of February in the year 2052, and the Earth was slowly falling into disarray. Resources were running dry, and while most governments had developed alternative fuel sources, companies that dealt with oil were unwilling to give up the commodity. Automobile manufactures refused to develop vehicles that ran off of anything other than gasoline, and as a result oil reserves were quickly being used up. The reserve in Alaska had finally been tapped into years ago, but America had been unwilling to share the resource with countries other than the major ones it traded with, and the rising demand for oil had quickly drained even Alaska of the commodity. Now countries refused to trade precious resources with each other and numerous skirmishes had broken out all over the globe. However one resource, nuclear power, was now used globally, and most countries were putting it into missiles and threatening to let them loose on their rivals. Tensions between the countries of the world were at an all-time high, and things didn't look like they were getting better anytime soon.

As the world crumbled around him it was always neat to look up at the night sky and see the familiar stars shining down. The boy was thankful it was a clear night, because this would be his last opportunity to see the stars from Earth. After tomorrow, everything will be different for him.

"Enjoying the view?" a voice came suddenly from behind the boy.

He jumped, having been so engrossed in his star gazing that he hadn't even noticed the figure of his father approaching. "Yes, they're very pretty tonight," he responded.

"Mmm," the man agreed, staring into the night sky as well. "It is remarkable," he said after a moment, "that those twinkling lights way up there are actually giant suns that existed billions of years ago."

"Yes I know."

"Because the light takes so many years to get to us," the man rambled on, "what we see in the night sky aren't stars that exist now in the present, but stars that existed in the past."

"Yes I know, Dad."

"I've always wanted to go there. To be able to see those stars with my own eyes, existing before our planet was even born. I always thought, '_there __**must**__ be a way to get to them, during the time that they existed; to see in person the stars that we see every night in the sky.'_ That's how I came up with my theory of time travel, you know?"

The boy sighed. He did think his father's time travel theory was cool and all, but this was his favorite anecdote to tell people and the man grabbed at every chance to tell it again. This must be about the tenth time the boy's heard it.

"Sure, traveling into the future is easy. We do it all the time as we age, and because moving at fast speeds slows down the rate at which time moves forward for the traveler, time around that person is actually increasing at a faster rate. Therefore, my son, traveling at speeds very close to light speed causes you to travel significantly farther into the future, without you aging nearly as fast as your surroundings."

The man paused, savoring the concept. His son sat, knees drawn up, with his chin in his arms, not really listening but remaining respectfully quiet. "But to travel _at_ light speed would allow you to travel into the past," the father continued. "Traveling at light speed causes time to reverse around you, because you are going so fast that _you_ happen before time does. It's like when an aircraft travels at the speed of sound; to a bystander the image of the plane goes by first, and then the sound, but by the time the bystander hears the sound of the engine the plane is already gone. You see, the plane happened before the sound; when the bystander hears the sound, the image of the plane is already in the past."

The boy sighed. That was his father's favorite analogy.

"It is amazing," the man finished with a sigh, clearly awe-struck by his own ideas. He gazed into the sky for another moment before snapping out of his reverie. "Are you ready for tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I have everything packed."

"And you've said goodbye to all of your friends?"

The boy sat in silence for a moment. "Yes," he said. He was excited for the trip to come, but sometimes it was hard to grasp the concept that he was letting go of everything he knew on this planet, for tomorrow he and his father were boarding a ship, an ark, to take them away from this ravaged planet. Things were so bad on Earth that there was almost no hope left for it. This ship that was leaving Earth tomorrow _was_ the last hope.

"Well then, we should get to bed. There's still some time to get some sleep before the big day tomorrow."

The boy stood and together the pair walked to the house that stood not too far away. The large, luxurious home his father had bought after becoming a big time, well-renowned scientist. The house the two were going to have to say goodbye to forever tomorrow.

o~o~o

The next day found the father and son driving away from their vacation house, to the location where they were going to leave Earth forever. It was 4:00 AM, and they had stopped by a fast food restaurant to get their breakfast.

"Probably the last fast food you'll ever eat!' The father said enthusiastically behind the wheel as his son ate a sausage. The boy stopped for a moment, looking at his food. The next bite he took slowly, careful to savor the greasy flavors in his mouth.

"Hey dad, can I see the paper with all the crew members? You said you had it right?"

"Sure," the man said and passed over a manila folder. "It's in there somewhere."

The boy shuffled through the papers until he found the one he desired. He pulled it out and examined it as he drank his cranberry juice. It was really a series of papers stapled together, listing all the crew members that were going to be on the ship in descending order of status, starting with the Captain. Each entry had a picture, and a description of the subject's occupation. The boy looked through until he found his father; the image of his smiling, bearded face next to his name: "Dr. Adam Trío," and with the description: "Science Officer" below that. Next down on the list was an image of his father's colleague: Victor Borske, the man who had helped develop the ship's revolutionary engine based on Adam's theories and concepts. The boy then looked over each person, reading about those that interested him and skipping over the unimportant crew members, until he reached his own entry, significantly farther down than his father's. "Aw dad," he said, "you used my real name."

"Of course I did, that's the name your mother and I gave you, isn't it?" Adam responded.

"Yeah well, it sounds like a girl's name. Gah, now everyone who reads this is going to think that's my name."

"It is your name."

"Well, when you meet the other guys today, can you tell them to call me Pryce? That's the name I like."

Adam sighed. "Whatever you want, although I don't understand why you prefer that name."

"It sounds smarter," Pryce grumbled.

The two sat in relative silence until Adam turned on the radio and began singing along with the old rock song that played over the station. Pryce finished eating his breakfast and reading through the papers, and now bored, took to staring out the window.

They were still within a relatively urbanized area, and Pryce stared at the scenes that passed before his eyes. It was still dark, but among the familiar strip malls, fast food restaurants, and grocery stores, there were several small groups of early morning demonstrators standing alongside the road, holding signs that read "The apocalypse is now," "Prepare for the end," "The government should protect us, not abandon us," and such. Light shining down from the street lamps made the protesters appear as some kind of alien species, the gas masks they wore giving them huge eyes and snouts, and the radiation suits large, blubbery bodies. Behind the demonstrators, Pryce could see how some buildings had been boarded up, with blackened windows that had been clearly smashed in. Many stores and shops still stood, such as the restaurant Pryce and his father had stopped by earlier, and some buildings even had signs posted on their windows that contained messages such as: "Stop by, it may be the last chance you get to shop!" or "All the equipment you need to survive a nuclear attack."

Things had been like this for some time, and it wasn't anything Pryce was shocked to see. With nearly every country aiming nukes at each other, the Doomsday Clock had been set to midnight for the first time in history last month, on 1 January 2052. That day had been dubbed "Last Year's Day" instead of "New Year's Day." People were preparing for the worst.

But now Pryce and his father were leaving behind the cities and towns, and were working their way into the heart of Montana, where hundreds of farms had been abandoned because the soil had become tainted by a nuclear meltdown fifteen years ago. Now nothing grew for miles and miles around. It was 4:42 AM, still dark, and they were scheduled to arrive at their destination at 6:00 AM, three hours before launch.

Pryce fell asleep sometime in the next hour, and slept until they finally reached their destination. When he was shaken awake by his father, he looked out the window eagerly. This wasn't the first time his father had been to this place, but it was a first for Pryce. He stepped out of the car and retrieved his baggage, all the while craning his neck around to get a better view of the place. Sunrise was approaching, and a faint line of purple was beginning to stain the sky near the horizon, but it was still dim and Pryce had to judge the looks of the location from lights that illuminated patches of land here and there. From what he could tell, the place was really rather dull. It was a base built to hide from the eyes of the public, where the government could carry out its mission in secret. The ground was barren asphalt, with several private jets parked nearby. The main building was round and low lying, it's only purpose to serve as a ground control for takeoff. There were other buildings, mostly to house and train the crew for the trip. An electrified barbed wire fence surrounded the property, with the single entrance being a secured gate that blockaded a dirt road. Figures darted here and there around the base, making the final preparations for launch. Other than that, the place was pretty empty. The only remarkable thing about the property was the ship itself, but in the dark all Pryce could make of it was a gargantuan shadow hulking in the distance. He stared as his father led him into the main building, but couldn't make out anything more.

Once inside, Pryce had to redirect his attention to his new surroundings. The inside was nice enough, but just as barren as the landscape outside. There was nothing on the walls but white paint, and there was only furniture where it needed to be, and not comfortable looking furniture at that. It smelled like new paint and sanitizer. But Pryce figured there was no point in making it fancy inside since the only people who were going to see it were those who were part of the operation and it was only going to be used once: today.

But security was tight. Adam had to show his security pass for himself and his son multiple times, just to get into the general common area.

"Now you wait here," Adam told Pryce once they entered the large room. "I need to get to the broadcast, I'm already late. Can you manage without me?"

"Of course," Pryce responded.

The two then parted ways as Adam hustled to his meeting. Pryce looked around; it was a big room, more like the size of a large gym, with lots of seats and television monitors placed here and there, where the broadcast from the General of the Armies and the ship's Officers was to be displayed. There were lots of people in the room already, hundreds even, sitting; waiting. He saw some couples, some kids his age, some younger, some older. And then there were lots of loners too. These were all the people who didn't need any special training for the mission; they were just passengers, like him. And yet it suddenly struck him, as he stared around the room, that these were the people he would be spending the rest of his life with. It was weird, there was some chatter in the room, but most people just sat and waited, as if they were just waiting to board a flight to the next city, not to outer space. Pryce suddenly felt a little self-conscious; he wanted to meet new people, but didn't want to be the awkward person to break the relative silence. So he chose to sit down in a chair that was away from other people. He would meet the crew once the mission was under way, he told himself. And he would bet the other people in the room were telling themselves the same thing.

o~o~o

Dr. Adam Trío hustled through the hallways, flashing his security pass at the guards that confronted him. He knew where he was going, he'd been here before; he was just a little late. Finally he found the correct meeting room, showed his pass one last time, and entered. Nine heads swiveled around to stare at him. Eight of them were sitting at a long, curved table, backs to the door and facing a camera placed in the center of the room. The ninth occupant stood at the center of the table in a General's uniform.

"Hello everyone," Adam greeted as he approached his seat next to an older man.

"Well, now that we are all here, let us begin," stated the General. He nodded towards the man behind the camera in front of the table. A hit of a button and the little red light indicated they were live.

In the common room Pryce glanced up from his lap as the televisions flickered on. Murmurings in the room hushed as they looked upon the row of men shown on the monitors.

"Greetings all," the man in the middle started. He was the only one standing and wore a military's uniform. "In case you didn't already know I am Earnest Reed, General of the United States Armies. This speech will be brief, launch occurs less than two hours from now and some of us here have duties to attend to. These are your officers; I will begin by introducing them. First is your Captain, Christopher Angle." The General indicated the man on the far right side of the table. The man was dignified looking, with graying brown hair and a very short, trimmed beard. He looked serious, but with a softness that indicated a kind and compassionate character.

"This is Xerxes Lemieux, Second in command," the General continued, going down the table from right to left. Xerxes hardly responded to the mention of his name, but simply looked at the camera sternly. Strong, handsome, he was of Iranian descent, dark skinned, dark haired and clean shaven.

"Mack Adams is your Security Officer." Mack was a buff man, older and with graying hair and stubble around his chin. He didn't look like the kind of man that would easily take a joke.

"Next we have Quinton Miskelly, your Communications Officer." Quinton looked like a cheery man, a bit lanky with slightly tousled sandy hair. He smiled through the television, a sharp contrast to the two men before him.

"Jett Washington, Chief Medical Officer." He looked friendly enough and raised a hand in greeting. He had brown hair, blue eyes, and a square face.

"Tyrone Megason, your navigator." Tyrone nodded. He didn't smile, but his face looked kind and polite. He only made eye contact with the camera once, but most viewers assumed it was because of shyness. He had blonde hair and an oval face.

"Now your Chief Engineer, Victor Borske." Victor was a European man, older with black hair and a short, sharp beard that refused to gray. Despite his age, he looked lean and fit. He also wore small spectacles, and like his captain, there was softness behind his eyes.

"Adam Trío, Science Officer." Adam smiled and waved cheerfully. He was middle aged. He had brown hair, a brown beard of medium length, and twinkling blue eyes. Pryce smiled from the common room. His dad might be bit odd, and sometimes obsessive over his work (okay, always obsessive over his work), but he was kind and Pryce shared his interest in the sciences.

"And finally, we have Ebony Stone, Head Biologist." The only woman present, Ebony was young and pretty looking. She looked up from where she had been staring at her clasped hands, smiled warmly with rose colored lips and waved. Her dark red hair was cropped at neck length with bangs that swept to the side.

"Now like I said, we'll keep this brief," the General continued. "I am here to inform you of your mission, in case you didn't know already, and to wish you good luck." Although he said it with a stern expression, those who heard him couldn't help but sense a hint of sarcasm in his voice at the mention of good luck.

He continued: "As you should know, the world is in a crisis. All countries have their nukes trained on us and we have our nukes trained on them. Needless to say, things are going downhill, and to be perfectly honest I don't see life on our planet surviving the next couple of months. I know it sounds bad coming from me, but you'll be off planet by the end of the day, and even if the public did find out what I have said here I don't think it would change things much." A look of bitterness came over the General's face and the frankness of his words made several people shift uncomfortable in their chairs. Most of the officers on the screen didn't reveal their inner thoughts, but both Adam and Quinton Miskelly shifted in their chairs along with the audience.

"All of you," General Reed went on as he leaned against the table. "Are the Earth's last hope for life. It is inevitable – this planet will soon be in the thralls of a global nuclear war, and when that happens next to nothing on this planet will survive. We are preparing for the worst case scenario. The ship you are about to board is equipped with revolutionary technology that will take you into the future, far enough to escape the nuclear winter that will grip this planet for years to come. Remember, we are assuming there will be no survivors on Earth, so you are the first generation to repopulate the planet after the war. The scientists and biologists that are part of your crew will ensure that there will be animal and plant life to return to the planet's ecosystems upon your return.

"It will take an estimated six years to reach your time destination. Halfway through the voyage, about three years from now, your ship will turn around and travel back to Earth, another three years. This will complete your trip into the future and end back here. After that, you're on your own.

"I hope you all understand the magnitude of this mission. Each of you have been selected with extreme prejudice; your admission for this trip was chosen based on your genetics, intelligence, personality, and family history to generate the greatest chance of creating a thriving population back here on Earth.

"There is nothing more I have to say; may God be with you."

The television screens flicked off and the murmurings started up again in the common room. Pryce looked around, the strange feeling that he was among the last people he would ever meet in his life coming over him again. He was certainly glad he had his father to be with on this voyage.

Back in the broadcast room General Reed left without saying another word. Christopher and Xerxes were right behind him, and after a moment, Ebony. One by one, the officers left, most without even saying a word to each other. The meeting was over, there was nothing else to do here and they all had duties to attend to. Eventually only three were left, Adam, Victor, and Quinton who were talking together in a group. Quickly the subject of the conversation turned to the engine that Victor and Adam designed that would be powering their ship.

"I'm really curious to know, how does it all work?" Quinton asked of the two scientists.

"Oh, it's all very complicated, Victor explains it better." Adam started.

"You know, it's better to explain while showing it to you in person," Victor said. "Adam and I actually have to check the engine before launch, if you don't have any other commitments we'd be glad to show it to you right now."

"Hm, I should report to the bridge for some pre-launch testing. Perhaps once we're under way you can give me a tour?" Quinton asked.

"It would be our pleasure," said Victor.

"I'll catch up with you, I need to pick up my son," said Adam suddenly, who had been checking the time.

The three then parted ways and Adam set out towards the common room where he had left Pryce. When he got there it was difficult to pick out his son from the crowd, because all of the occupants of the room were being ushered out of the building and towards the boarding area; it was getting close to launch. Eventually Adam spotted Pryce waving at him from across the room. The two met up and Adam led his son out through a side door. "You get the backstage entrance," he said.

"Sweet," said Pryce as he lugged his bags along.

Soon the two were outside, and as the sun was just beginning to light up the sky Pryce got his first view of the spaceship he would be boarding soon. It was the most magnificent thing he had ever seen in his life. It resembled one of the old space shuttles used by NASA back in the early 2000's, but so much bigger and bulkier. It had to accommodate a crew of up to one-hundred and about three-hundred passengers, with room for living quarters, an infirmary, a command bridge, mess hall, areas to store supplies, several science labs, and more. This ship was massive, and it made the old fashioned space shuttles look like frail little toys. No wonder the space program had been shut down so many years ago, the government was putting all of its efforts into building this. The structural integrity of the hull had to have been completely redesigned so it didn't break apart once the ship reached velocities near light speed, and so that the passengers on board weren't killed by the breakneck pace of the voyage. Other revolutionary technology had to have been developed, such as how to simulate gravity, how to generate and store enough rations for the entire crew for the entire six years, and most importantly the engine that would be propelling the craft. Along the hull of the ship the words "_The Ark_" were emblazoned in bold letters.

Pryce wasn't sure how they had gotten the shuttle here without the public knowing, or if they had simply built the entire thing right here, but the fact of the matter was that it was here, it was awesome, and nobody knew about it except for them. And he was about to live on this thing for the next six years of his life. He was confident in any technology his father had a hand in creating, and he was definitely excited for the voyage to come.

As the two rode the elevator up to the entrance, Pryce couldn't stop gaping. "We're getting in here first," Adam stated as the elevator stopped at an entrance considerably lower than the main one where the rest of the passengers would be boarding. It was strange entering the ship because it was currently standing vertically for launch, thus setting its interior at a sideways angle. But temporary walkways had been set up, here and in other places, so the crew could board and perform pre-launch inspections like Adam and Victor would be doing on the ship's engines.

Pryce followed his father as they met up with Victor. He stood by and admired the massive core reactor while the two men checked its calibrations, temperature readings, and began the warming up process. A massive clear cylinder, with a smaller metallic tube inside of it, ran from floor to ceiling. Large pieces of machinery connected the cylinder to the floor and ceiling, each machine displaying an array of panels and monitor screens. These features were impressive on their own, but the most intriguing part of it all was the huge metal sphere that engulfed the very center of the cylinder. Two massive pipes ran through each side of the sphere and connected to both the floor and ceiling. Decking systems had been set up to give access to the sphere and top machine. This entire device was the core reactor, and it's what provided power for the ship and its multiple engines.

After nearly an hour of testing, adjusting, and more testing, the two scientists finally deemed the engine good to go.

"Alright, the other passengers should be boarding by now," Adam informed Pryce as Victor wrapped the inspection up. "We need to get into our places."

"So, are you guys going to be with the other officers?" Pryce asked.

"Victor will be," Adam responded. "But I'm going to be with you and the other passengers instead."

This made Pryce smile. He was a big boy, he could have handled launch on his own. But it just seemed like the kind of moment to be with your family for.

Adam led his son out of the engine room and back outside onto the elevator. Up above them they could see where the passengers had taken a different elevator and were busy boarding the spacecraft. Adam and Pryce would join them while Victor took a separate elevator to where the officers and crew were already onboard.

"Come on," Adam said. "Let's go find our seats."

o~o~o

It was 8:39 AM, and all passengers and crew members were seated and ready. Both the take-off engine and the spaceship's engine were warmed and deemed ready for action by onboard scientists and engineers.

In the control room, team members sat behind computers, monitoring the ship that was about to take off. General Earnest Reed stood in the back and watched from above, but otherwise left control to the Director. For this launch, Mission Control consisted of only one floor of workers, all in one room; much different than the space launches of older times. This was a top secret flight, so those monitoring it were a select few of government trained workers, and because this was a one way trip on this end, there was really nothing to monitor after takeoff; once the spaceship was out of the atmosphere, it was out of the hands of Mission Control.

At 8:40 the Director gave the signal to begin the launch sequence. Captain Angle on board gave a confirmation and with a few taps on the keyboard the engines of the ship fully powered on.

8:50; the launch team gave the "go for launch" and countdown started at T minus 10 minutes.

8:52; the ship was separated from the access arms that allowed the crew to board the ship. All other connecting apparatus's were pulled away except for the structure that kept the shuttle standing in a stable position. Now, as the sun rose in the new sky, the ship stood alone and waited as the countdown continued.

8:55; on board the ship, on the command bridge, Captain Angle gave the signal to activate the Auxiliary Power Units. As a crew member flipped a switch, pressure began building in the engines and all occupants of the ship felt it as the launch engines began their activation sequence.

Crew members and passengers alike hunkered down. Five minutes to go, and for some passengers reality struck as they remembered that a flight like this had never been tested before. Some families held hands while others just gripped the arm rests of their chairs. Adam placed a hand on Pryce's arm. Pryce, who was one of those having a reality check, didn't protest.

Steam rolled from the engines as excess gasses were purged.

Back on the command bridge Tyrone Megason tested various flaps, rudders, and brakes as a last affirmation that everything was in working order.

8:56; the main power being fed to the shuttle is switched over from ground power to internal power.

8:57; the pumping of oxygen and hydrogen into the fuel cells halts and a chemical reaction begins to take place inside the thrusters.

8:58; gasses inside the thruster tanks come to full pressure.

8:59; T minus 31 seconds, terminal launch sequence begins. Mission control and space shuttle officers watch closely for any problems that might arise.

T minus 28 seconds; the thruster boosters are initiated.

T minus 10 seconds; mission control gives the "go for engine launch" command. Beneath the ship, blinding flares bloom from the thrusters as excess hydrogen is burned away.

T minus 7 seconds; the Director gives confirmation to Captain Angle to initiate the engines.

Captain Angle reflected the command to his crew. Xerxes Lemieux helped ignite the engines alongside Tyrone and other crew members. All onboard felt the ship as it rumbled in response; there was absolutely no turning back now. Those on the ground had to cover their eyes from the light of the flares under the thrusters, as well as their ears from the deafening rumble that emanated from the activated engines.

T minus 0 seconds; all hold down bolts are blown away from the ship in a shower of sparks. The flares under the thrusters grew in volume until smoke was billowing from the combustion. In one glorious moment the ship lifted from the launch pad with a kind of grace that no one expected from a spaceship that was so big. All onboard hunkered down once again; on the Command Bridge, crew members watched computer monitors nervously for any error messages. Similarly in Mission Control all was quiet and tense as the teams observed the space craft rise into the air, leaving behind a trail of exhaust.

The ship rose higher and higher, arcing slightly as it drew closer to leaving the atmosphere. Slowly it disappeared into the fresh, blue morning sky. When it became clear the launch was a success, those on the ground cheered and clapped in celebration. But it was still quiet in Mission Control; there was just one step left now, and it was completely out of their hands.

Finally the ship, _The Ark_, left Earth's atmosphere, the shuttle shedding its large engines that were only needed to get it into outer space. The engines separated and fell back down to Earth. Onboard, the passengers were getting ready for one last launch, not to escape Earth's gravity but to jump to near light speed.

Victor Borske on the Command Bridge was giving orders and instructions to his crew in the engine room, while Tyrone prepared the ship's navigation systems for its jump. Engineers scrambled to get the shuttle's internal engine ready. It was already warmed up; it just needed to be activated.

Finally Victor received confirmation that the engine was ready. He gave the "good to go" signal to the Captain, who alerted all passengers to prepare for the jump. After a few more commands and more than a few switches were flicked, the final crew members settled into safe positions, and the shuttle was sent into super speeds.

A brilliant blue light emanated from the ship's main thrusters as the engine kicked into gear. A split of a second later the entire ship slipped out of sight as it rocketed away from Earth.

Back in Mission Control, the shuttle disappeared from all computer monitors and signals from the ship faded into the blackness of space. Mission Control could only assume the jump was a success, and they celebrated.

From the back of the room, General Earnest Reed stared at the large screen that a moment before had tracked the whereabouts of the space shuttle. He didn't celebrate alongside those below him, who were patting each other on the back and shaking hands. Instead he muttered to himself: "Never before has the term 'Godspeed,' held more meaning."

Suddenly the screen in front changed its image. The new display showed a map of the world, and there were seven blips of light slowly moving towards the United States.

"Sir, there are seven inbound missiles from four countries," a worker spoke up.

The General stood straight, staring at the screen. He wasn't surprised at all about this turn of the events; this was actually the real reason why he was here. Things were so tense between countries today that the launch of anything into the Earth's atmosphere would never have gone undetected and ignored by other nations. Ironically, the spaceship that was the hope for Earth's future was the very thing that was going to bring about its demise.

"And so it begins," he muttered as those blips moved ever closer to the United States. Now other blips were appearing and heading towards different nations. The General gave the signal, and several buttons were pressed. Several more blinking lights appeared on the map, originating from the United States and spreading out on the map. "The apocalypse starts now."

* * *

><p>Author's Notes:<p>

I just want to say, the sort of "end of the world" situation I had set up at the beginning of this story is not meant to reflect my own personal views or beliefs. At the time I wrote this chapter I was taking a "Business and Society" course at college, and there was a chapter in the textbook that talked about some of the worst case scenario plans businesses had developed when it came to the energy crisis. For example, (and I can't remember the details, I took this class about a year ago and I've hardly thought about it since and of course I don't have the textbook because I returned it), a business that deals with fossil fuels (such as mining oil, refining it, or actually distributing it) has to plan for possible paths the energy industry might take in the future. So oil might become more scarce in the future, some countries might open up or close their oil industries to the rest of the world, and alternative fuels may or may not become more available. And it was reading about all of this that inspired me to set up the beginning of this story. So don't worry, the whole "end of the world" thing merely exists as a way to set up and drive the story onward. It'll come up again, but not as part of the main plotline.

And finally, I can't give credit to myself for coming up with all of the time travel concepts that were presented in this chapter (and will continue for quite a while into this story). There's a great website called HowStuffWorks where I read several articles about theoretical ways to travel through time. I'm not trying to say they're true (they're all just theories), but I tried to find the most believable way to explain how one might travel into the past and future. And then for the space shuttle launch sequence, I found an article on a NASA website that describes everything that happens, minute by minute, before a shuttle launch up to the point of launch. It was a pretty sweet find! So thank you HowStuffWorks and NASA!

And I think that's enough commentary. I hope you're intrigued by this story and continue on. As I said at the beginning of this chapter, this is going to be a bit more of an unconventional story. Yes, we're going to be following these humans around for a while yet, so be prepared for that. Please let me know your thoughts, and along the way I'd love to hear your theories for what's going to happen with these guys in the future! And if you're reading this, thank you for slogging through all of these author's notes, I don't usually write long commentaries like this, I swear! And that's it for now, hope to see you in future chapters!


	2. Getting Acquainted Part 1

Author's Notes: This takes place a little over two weeks after the last chapter. There will be time jumps between the next several chapters as well. And as the title suggests, this chapter is dedicated more to getting to know some of the characters, with a little plot stuff thrown in there!

* * *

><p>******* Personal Log *******<p>

Crew Member: Dr. Adam Trío, Science Officer

Date: 26 February 2052

Time: 22:27

Entry #16:

I feel like things are finally beginning to slip into a routine on this ship. The room my son and I share feels more like home every day, and the crew members like close friends. I still miss Earth though, and I am sure everybody else onboard does as well. It's a sobering thought that Earth may very well be in the grips of a nuclear war right now, but at the same time I know we will see our planet again, in time.

Victor and I continue to monitor our engine, but it runs flawlessly. I've estimated that we've already traveled about 9 years into Earth's future, with the engine propelling us at 99 percent of light speed. We will continue to monitor the engine, but I am confident that it will continue to function properly until we reach the end of this trip.

One would think this whole voyage would be full of excitement, but ever since we left Earth everything's been very official. I do my job just like everybody else on this ship, and my son goes to class everyday just like before on Earth. Who knew that a fantastic voyage into space and the future would wind up feeling just as normal as life back home. Let's hope it stays that way, a normal voyage is a safe voyage!

Well tomorrow I finally give Quinton that tour of the engine room he's been wanting, a nice break in the routine to look forward to.

******* End Log Entry *******

"What makes the engine system of this ship so revolutionary is that it utilizes energy created by antimatter collisions. What you see before you is the main core reactor.

"Uh huh."

"That center sphere is where antimatter is stored through the use of magnetic rings. Those rings keep the antimatter separated from regular matter until it is needed. When the engines require more energy, antimatter is fed into the central chamber of the sphere where it collides with normal matter.

"Okay."

"These types of collisions are one-hundred percent efficient, meaning all of the physical matter is converted into energy with no waste. This energy is fed through that tube inside of the clear cylinder that you see into the two main power converters, one here on the floor and the other at the ceiling. The converters act much like a transformer, where it takes in the power from the core reactor and appropriately distributes it into the twin thrusters of this ship. A small percentage of the power intake is also transferred into large devices that store the energy, much like batteries, for use around the ship as needed. In addition, these machines store complex computer systems that allow us to monitor and regulate the antimatter collider and storage rings."

"Hmm," Quinton crossed his arms and stared up at the power source that fueled the entire ship. He leaned over to Adam who was standing to his left, "I thought _you_ were going to explain this to me?"

Adam laughed. "Victor does it better," he stated as Victor stood to Quinton's right and continued to ramble on about the reactor.

"You know," Quinton said. "I considered pursuing a major in Engineering back in college."

"Oh yeah? What made you change it?"

"My first professor talked like him," Quinton said and nodded to Victor who was still rambling.

Adam and Quinton listened to Victor for another minute, who was now explaining how the engine used a system of water pumps to cool the central reactor, a system that's been used to cool nuclear reactors since the early 2000's. Eventually Adam nudged Quinton in the arm, "You want to check out the lab where our chemical engineer works? He deals with all the liquids and fuels and stuff that make this ship run."

"Sure, as long as he doesn't talk like Mr. Engineer here."

Adam chuckled. "Only with his colleagues." He then turned to Victor who had reached a break in his explanation. "Hey Victor, we're going to head out, I'm sure you have more important things to do than to give us the rundown."

Victor looked at the other two and blinked behind his glasses. "Oh of course, I _am_ quite busy; I still need to calibrate the engine's hydraulic pumps."

"Well then we'll leave you to your work," said Adam and the two headed out of the engine room.

"Now I think you'll like Nicolas, but just keep a wary eye out when you're in his lab," Adam said as they walked down the hallway.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, you'll see."

o~o~o

The first thing Quinton smelled when he entered Nicolas's lab was… nothing. He was expecting a barrage of smells and noises when he first walked in, the kind of thing one might expect from a chemistry lab. He wanted to see instruments whirring and beakers steaming with colorful, boiling liquids. But the lab was clean and quiet. There were multiple countertop islands with different sets of beakers and Bunsen burners, and in the far corner one man worked with a clipboard and a bubbling clear liquid inside a glass above a small flame.

"Hey Nic!" Adam called out as he and Quinton walked in. The man looked up from his clipboard, smiled and waved. He had wavy grey-peppered hair and wore khaki pants with a plain white tee shirt and a denim jacket. _He's not even wearing a lab coat and goggles_, Quinton thought as his stereotypical image of a chemist was shattered.

"Hey Adam, to what honor do I owe this visit? Oh, and it's Quinton, right?" Nicolas asked as the two approached.

"I'm just giving Quinton here a tour of all the science labs. Nic, you know Quinton Miskelly our Communications Officer, and Quinton this is Nicolas Clemens my lead chemical engineer."

"Pleased to meet you," Quinton said.

"Likewise," Nicolas responded and the two shook hands. "Why did you wait so long to take this tour?"

"Oh there was a whole lot of boring officer stuff we had to do. You know, post-launch procedure, Adam can tell you all about that."

"Indeed," Adam responded. "It was quite boring."

"Hm, now if you don't mind me asking, Mr. Miskelly, what exactly do you do as a Communications Officer?" Nicolas asked.

"Well, what you don't know is that there's an alien race out there that we're going to meet up with halfway through our trip, and when we come in contact it's up to me to negotiate a peace treaty so that they don't destroy us."

Adam and Nic just stared at him.

Quinton held a finger to his lips, "Shh, that's classified."

"Uh… really?" Nicolas asked, bemused.

"HA, no I'm just pulling your leg! What I really do is I help organize and analyze data we receive, and I help run and maintain our computer systems. I also advise the command team on how to communicate with the rest of the crew, such as what to tell them and how. I want to be able to smooth communications between all departments of this ship, so I'm trying to get to know the people from all areas of the crew, which is why I'm here. And hey, if we do come in contact with an alien race, I get to be the first one to talk to them!" Quinton ended the last statement with an enthusiastic thumb's up.

"Oh, so you're like the bonding agent that adhere us all together!" Nicolas said with a grin.

"Well, if you're talking about glue, then sure," Quinton said to Nic, and then to Adam, "You said he wouldn't talk like that."

Adam just chuckled.

Quinton spoke up again; "Well if you don't mind _me_ asking Nic, what are _you_ up to here?" he said and indicated the beaker of clear liquid that had been boiling the entire time.

Nicolas looked at the beaker and jumped with an "oh!" having just remembered what he had been doing before his guests had arrived. "I'm just doing a weekly test on our water supply to make sure nothing's contaminating it. Oh, but come over here I want to show you something!" he said with a grin.

Curious, Quinton followed, while Adam decided to stand back to watch over the bubbling water.

Nicolas grabbed a pair of goggles and gave to them Quinton saying "Put these on," and then took a narrow-throated beaker and poured a bluish liquid inside of it. He turned back to Quinton and pushed the beaker into his hands with a "Here hold this!" Next Nic grabbed an eye dropper and filled it with a yellow liquid. "Watch this," he said and put a few drops into the beaker. "Now," Nic said, "look right down into that, a little closer. Yeah like that, it's really cool, I want you to see it."

"Okay," Quinton said with an unsure expression on his face. He now stood with his head bent over, looking directly down the neck of the glass through his goggles.

"It'll take just a minute keep watching," said Nic.

"Uhm, the glass is getting warm, is that normal?"

"Oh yeah keep watching."

A second of silence went by before a soft _**shhhfooot**_ sound came from the beaker. Quinton jumped, and then turned around to face Adam with his face covered in a fine layer of soot. Nic was doubled over laughing, "Ahaha! Everybody falls for that!"

"I told you to keep a wary eye out," Adam said with a wry grin.

Quinton lifted the goggles up onto his head so that he could see, leaving a perfectly clean patch of skin around his eyes. "Yeah… is it safe to have this stuff on my face?" he asked.

"Oh yeah, it's perfectly fine," Nic reassured from where he was doubled over with his hands on his knees, still chuckling. Once he had regained his composure he said "Here," and handed Quinton a damp cloth from the nearest sink.

"Well I think we need to get going," Adam said while Quinton wiped off his face. The latter nodded to the former behind Nic's back.

"Okay then, well good to meet you Quinton!" Nicolas said and shook hands with him again, taking the used beaker back.

"Yeah, good to meet you to," said Quinton in a tone of voice that was a bit sedated.

Nicolas turned to clean out his beaker. "Come again, you're welcome anytime."

Once the two were out of the lab Adam turned to Quinton. "Don't worry he does that to all the new people he meets."

"So I don't need to be concerned about that happening again?" Quinton asked.

"Oh well, I can't guarantee that. Just keep a watch out when he's around and you should be fine."

"Oh… okay."

The two walked down the corridor for another minute in silence.

"The other day he got Victor to sit on a whoopee-cushion."

"Uh, how did he get a whoopee-cushion onboard?"

"… We're not sure."

o~o~o

On the same deck level but across the ship, Ebony, the crew's head biologist, was busy with her own work. It was later in the day now, her assistants had all gone and she was left to watch over her lab alone. She pulled liquid out of an embryo sack with a syringe and carefully dropped it into an instrument in her hand. After analyzing the stream of data on the screen she looked up at the clock and sighed. 10:25 pm. Her shift had been over at 9:00 pm, but with so many specimens in stasis to care for, it was essential that they were watched over at all times. Since this was her lab; since this is what she lived for, it fell on her shoulders to make sure said care was doled out. And because her night shift worker was going to be late today, it was up to her to pick up the extra hours.

She checked the settings on a batch of cryostasis bird eggs next, before making her way towards the back of the lab where the entrance to the seed vault was. This was where the seeds of nearly all essential human crops and wild plants were kept preserved. The room was not as big as one might think, it wasn't necessary for them to keep a supply of plants to immediately feed a huge population or regrow a forest, they just needed enough to get a running start once they landed back on Earth.

She readjusted the air pressure setting before leaving the vault, reading the output from her handheld again. She didn't even notice the shadow that had appeared in the room until it moved. She caught the movement in her peripheral vision and jumped with a gasp, dropping her device, as she identified a human figure sitting on one of her tables.

The man turned his head to look at her. "Hey," he said nonchalantly.

Ebony pressed a hand to her pounding chest, but inched closer to get a better view. "A – Amal?!" she breathed in surprise.

"You guessed it," said the man.

"But… but what – how?" she stuttered.

"To ease you of your befuddlement, yes I've been here the entire time, yes I snuck onboard back on Earth, and yes I've been eating your food."

"You've been in _here_ the entire time?" Ebony said astonished as she indicated the lab.

"Yup," replied the man.

A look of sudden understanding came over Ebony. "So _that's_ where my sandwiches have been disappearing to!"

The man seemed to look at her with a wry smile. "You'd make a horrible detective."

"But wait," Ebony said. "It's been over _two weeks_ since the launch!"

"Yeah, I was waiting for you to find me, or anyone really, but I was getting bored."

Ebony backed up and sat down in a chair behind her. "But – what are you doing here?!"

"Oh, you mean what am I doing here on this ship instead of on a nuclear ravaged planet?"

There was a silence between the two. Still in shadow, the man stared at Ebony intensely. "You were going to just leave me there?" he finally whispered.

"Amal, there was nothing I could've done."

"Really, nothing?" the man spoke sharply. "You couldn't have slipped just one name onto the list?"

Ebony stood up in indignation. "No I couldn't! Believe me I tried! But there was nothing I could have done!" She shouted at him.

Another short silence before the man spoke up quietly. "I would have done it for you."

Ebony looked away.

"You didn't even say goodbye," he continued.

Ebony whirled away, her white lab coat swirling behind her, and walked towards a comm-station at the edge of her lab. "I'm calling security."

"Calling the fuzz on your long lost boyfriend? Feeling the love."

She ignored his comment and instead picked up the comm-unit and held it in front of her mouth. The man in shadow could only distinguish her voice during the brief conversation. "Mack? It's Ebony, we've got a stowaway… in my lab. No he's not dangerous. I'm fine. Yes Mack, I'm sure. Okay."

Ebony put the receiver back and walked over to the door to the lab, where she crossed her arms and stood to wait for security to come. The man accepted the silence and several minutes passed before the lab door swooshed open.

The head of security, Mack Adams, and two other security officers strode in. "Where is the punk?" Mack growled and Ebony pointed towards the back of the lab.

Mack stalked up to the shadowy figure. "Come quietly if you know what's good for ya," he said sternly.

The man didn't resist as Mack cuffed him and marched him out of the lab by the shoulder. He did, however, give Ebony one last glance before leaving the room.

o~o~o

"His name is Amal Gamous. Twenty-four years old; of Arabian descent, his parents immigrated to the United States before he was born. His records show his only job on Earth was working in a dump yard for the last seven years. No college education. To sum it up: a nobody really."

"And he was never on the list to join the crew of this ship?"

"No, never."

Captain Angle crossed his arms in thought while Mack described the situation to him; the man in question sitting quietly in a containment cell that was just out of earshot. The Captain's second-in-command, Xerxes Lemieux, stood by as well.

"You know he kind of looks like you," Christopher said to Xerxes in a kidding tone.

The first Lieutenant's eyes simply narrowed at the mention of his visage resembling that of a man currently behind bars. "How did he get onboard?" Xerxes spoke up, ignoring his Captain's previous comment. His voice was quiet but immediately commanded attention from the other two.

"We don't know," Mack admitted grudgingly. "According to Ebony, the guy confessed to hiding in the biology lab since launch, but he didn't say how he actually boarded the ship."

"Well, what should we do with him?" Christopher openly asked.

"We could keep him in the holding cell," Mack grunted.

"For six years?" Christopher rebutted.

Xerxes spoke up again, "We have a few spare living quarters, he could lodge there."

"So he stows away and gets off Scott-free?!" Mack said disgustedly.

"He would be assigned duties for the duration of the voyage," said Xerxes, this time his voice stern.

"So he gets a job for committing a crime, that hardly seems right to me," Mack protested.

"A crime?" Christopher finally joined in on the conversation again. "Can you blame a guy for wanting to escape a planet about to undergo a nuclear war?"

"Are you saying this guy, this stowaway, shouldn't be taken as a threat towards this mission?" Mack asked the Captain incredulously.

"Well Mack, do you have any evidence that this man might be dangerous towards us in any way?"

"Um, well not really. No." Mack admitted grudgingly as he scanned through Amal's records again.

"Then we have no reason to fear him or punish him. I have made my decision" the Captain concluded before walking over to face the man in the cell, who was generous enough to spare him a glance.

"Amal Gamous," Christopher began. "For trespassing, you will be kept in solitary confinement here for the next two weeks. Afterward you will be granted living quarters and assigned duties to which you must perform. If you refuse to comply you will be confined to your quarters for the duration of the voyage or until you become willing to cooperate again. Do you understand?"

Amal shrugged. "Sure, what else do I have to do around here?"

Captain Angle stared at him for a moment. "Very well," he finally said and turned to leave, motioning for Mack and Xerxes to follow him out of the brig.

"Oh and Mr. Mack," Amal called out from his cell. "I'm sure it was 'nobody' then that stole the button off of your right back pocket?"

"What!?" Mack exclaimed as he patted the aforementioned pocket. When he found that the button was indeed missing, he started towards the cell with a furious look. "Why you wise-cracked punk…" he growled.

Xerxes placed a hand on Mack's shoulder and held him back with a firm "leave it." Mack glared at the second-in-command before shrugging the hand off and stomping out of the room. Xerxes and Christopher shared a look before following the security officer out.

Meanwhile Amal chuckled as he fiddled with the stolen button in his hands.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: Once again, thanks to HowStuffWorks for the information on antimatter. To give proper credit, here are the citations for all the articles I've read for this story so far:<p>

Harris, William. "What if you traveled faster than the speed of light?" 21 July 2011.

Bonsor, Kevin, and Robert Lamb. "How Time Travel Works" 20 October 2000.

Bonsor, Kevin. "How Antimatter Spacecraft Will Work" 29 November 2000.

This article was also very helpful:

Bergey, Nathan. "Space Tech: Spacecraft Subsystems" 19 May 2011.

Yes I had to do some mild research for this story. I hope it pays off for all of you!


	3. Getting Acquainted Part 2

Author's Notes: This chapter is really the second part to the last chapter. I would have put them together as one, except there's a time jump in between and they really just flow better as two separate parts. So a few more character introductions this chapter.

* * *

><p>******* Personal Log *******<p>

Crew Member: Dr. Adam Trío, Science Officer

Date: 11 March 2052

Time: 20:02

Entry #29:

Well just as it seemed the ruckus over the stowaway had died down, it's about to start up again as said stowaway will be released from his imprisonment tomorrow. I heard from the command grape vine that he is to work as Sonia's assistant for the time being, at least until the higher ups decide where he could make himself more useful. Mack is bent on the idea that this stowaway would be most useful kept in the brig. Now I haven't met the man yet, but I agree with the Captain, you can't blame a person for wanting to escape a planet about to undergo a nuclear war. Well, we'll see who this man turns out to be in the coming days. It is actually exciting to meet somebody new, I'd just gotten used to the idea that the people on this ship were the last people I were to meet in my life, except perhaps their children.

On a different note, my boy has made himself quite useful around this place. He is now Victor's official assistant, when he's not in school of course. It does me good to see him so interested in the sciences, and he is very eager to help out wherever he can. I am proud of him.

Well as usual everything onboard is running smoothly. We are now officially a month into this voyage, and it's so far so good. Let us hope things stay that way for the rest of the trip (knock on wood).

******* End Log Entry *******

Pryce fiddled with a ratchet in his hands as he stood by Victor's side. The engineer was busy rattling on about the inner workings of some device he was maintaining, and it was Pryce's job to hand him the tools he needed. It wasn't very glamorous, but his Dad told him that since this was only his second week as assistant, he was going to be stuck with menial jobs such as this for several weeks, or at least until he got the hang of things. So far he'd acted as Victor's gofer, running to various departments to pick up pieces of equipment that were needed, filing forms and doing data entry, and today, handing him tools from a box that was only about a foot away. Victor had said this was a great way for him to learn what kind of tools were used in the field, but Pryce was pretty sure he was just being lazy making the younger person dig through the toolbox.

Pryce was busy thinking about his current lot in life when he realized his mentor was motioning him to lean closer.

"You see this gear right here?" he asked as he turned said gear with a greasy finger. Pryce nodded. "This is what turns this lever over here, which causes these pistons to pump water through this chamber right here. This tube carries water up into the reactor to collect heat, and this tube carries heated water back to this chamber to cool off, here," and here he tapped the part of the large chamber that used to be hidden behind steel walls, but has now been partially exposed for their project. Pryce just nodded dumbly, staring at the complicated mess of gears, pumps, pipes and containment chambers that were the guts of the machine. The engineer continued: "Now our problem is right here with this chamber, the piping right here is beginning to wear out and it needs to be replaced. If this chamber should break while the engine was operating, it would cause a serious meltdown."

"Wow, good thing you caught it in time," Pryce commented.

"Yes well, that's why we are thorough in our inspections. Remember that, always be thorough. Now, I've drained all water from this section and stopped the pumps, our job now is to remove the worn pipe and replace it. Would you mind removing the bolts so we can detach it?"

Pryce perked up at the chance to actually _do_ something. "Sure!" he said, but before he could even move towards the engine, Victor was taking the ratchet from his hands.

"Actually I should demonstrate," he said. Pryce sighed as the man began ratcheting the bolts loose himself. Pretty soon the "demonstration" had turned into a full blown job, and in no time the offending piece of metal had been removed by Victor.

"Next we need to replace this part. Pryce, do you know Sonia Forge?"

"Uhm," Pryce mused as he tried to recall who that was. "Oh! She's the mechanic, right?"

"Yes," Victor affirmed. "Since this certain part is unique, I had her make a new one, special. It should be ready now; I want you to pick it up. She'll be in her workshop."

"Okay," Pryce said. "Um, where exactly is that?"

"One deck up, starboard side of the engine core. While you are retrieving that, I will prepare the machinery for the replacement piece. Please be quick, we have many other things to do today."

Pryce nodded and left with his new destination in mind. He hustled out of the engine room and into the brightly lit hallway. He was currently on deck two of the ship, the only thing on this level and below was machinery and storage rooms, and down here not much effort had been put into comfort; the lights were a little harsh, the floors hard, the hallways narrow, and only a few windows were scattered throughout the deck. But even one deck up, the floors were carpeted where the crew's quarters were located, the light softer, and there were more windows. The ship got more comfortable the higher you got, eventually ending in the Captain's and second in command's quarters on deck thirteen with the command bridge the next level down. His and his Dad's room happened to be located on deck nine.

But for now Pryce was just going up one level. He would rather have taken an elevator, but since there was a staircase nearby, and he was supposed to be fast for Victor, he figured he'd take the stairs. He passed several crew members along the way, all too busy to spare a glance at the young boy. But that was okay, he was about to meet someone new! He'd heard about Sonia Forge, she was the best mechanic onboard; some even think she changed her last name to Forge because she loved her job so much. He was eager to meet her.

But first he had to find her workshop. He was near the middle of the ship now, closer to the front, so he had half the entire ship to walk to get to Sonia's workplace. Not that he minded; it didn't matter that they've been on this ship for a month already, nor the somber circumstances of their departure, he still thought it was the coolest thing that he was living on a spaceship. He passed by a porthole window, and couldn't keep himself from stopping and staring out into the vast expanse of space. The stars were so much clearer out here than on any place on Earth, and Pryce wasn't a poet, but he couldn't help but think that the stars were like diamond rhinestones encrusting an infinitely wide expanse of true black velvet. Except he knew they weren't, that actually they were awesomely huge cosmic bodies of fire, burning billions of light years apart, and hiding who knows what kind of new and fascinating planetary systems that orbited them. It took his breath away every time he saw it.

But eventually he had to pull himself away from the window and recommit himself to the task at hand. He set back out towards the stern of the ship, to find the engine core and orient himself. He passed by other crew workers along the way, but these people weren't as busy as the ones just a deck below, and some of them even sent a look or friendly smile his way.

It took a minute to walk half the length of the ship, but finally he found the entrance to the chamber that housed the ship's main source of power and energy, which spanned the height of several decks. Next he found the starboard side of the ship, and it wasn't long before he was standing in front of Sonia Forge's workshop.

There was a heavy steel door that guarded the entrance, but for now it was propped open with large lump of metal. Pryce peeked inside the room, and immediately detected that the air was hotter and drier inside the workshop than the rest of the ship. He could also smell it too, and it smelled of metal, and hot stuff, or maybe it was just hot metal, which would make more sense. It was like that sharp tang you get when you taste raw metal, but he was picking it up with his nose instead of his tongue.

Finally he worked up the nerve to slip inside the room, figuring if the door was propped open, he didn't need an invite to enter. Within seconds he knew he liked this place. It was warm, not excessively hot, and the glow from the furnace fires cast a soft and warm light across the room, very much _un_like the artificial lights that lit the rest of the ship. It reminded him of camping back on Earth. And besides the warm atmosphere, the walls were practically dripping with odd and ornate pieces of metalwork. Some were small and intricate, others were larger. One piece in particular caught his eye; it was a sword, of all things. A beautiful, double-edged straight sword, with edges that looked as fine as a razor, point as sharp as a needle, and hilt with delicate swirls, flowers, and curves carved into it. He also noticed the flat of the sword had blooming, flourishing flowers engraved into it from hilt to tip. He was so engrossed in the sword that he didn't notice the form approaching him from behind.

"You like my sword, hey?"

Pryce jumped and whirled around. Standing behind him was a tall woman, with her dark wavy hair pulled into a pony tail and a smile on her face.

"Um, yes! It's very beautiful. Did you make that yourself?"

"Sure did son! They tried to tell me I couldn't bring it onboard, until I showed them what it looked like up close, if you catch my meaning," the woman said with a mischievous wink.

Pryce grinned, before remembering he had a task to get done. "Oh, uh, are you Sonia Forge?" he asked.

"Sure am! What can I do ya for kid?" Sonia said.

"Well, Mr. Borske needs an engine part from you; he thinks it might be ready?"

"Oh, you must be Victor's little assistant then? Is it Pryce? And then you're Adam's boy too, right?"

"Yes, yes, and uh, yes!"

"How wonderful! I hope you're being a better assistant for Victor than the one that was dumped on me yesterday. _HEY!_" she suddenly shouted as she turned around, making Pryce jump. For the first time Pryce noticed the other person in the room besides himself and Sonia. For a moment he thought the man might have been the ship's second-in-command before he realized he wasn't. His face had sharper angles, a lighter complexion, and a lankier form; similar looking to, but most definitely not, the second-in-command.

The man looked up as Sonia approached threateningly. "Gamous! I told you to clean that welder's mask, not gawk at my tools!" She proceeded to grab a wrench and rap it on his hand, making him drop whatever it was he had been holding.

"Ow!" the man protested. "I was just looking, jeez."

"You have the rest of your life to look at stuff, but only a limited time before I whack you over the head with this," Sonia said, brandishing her weapon. "So get your scrawny butt into gear and do as you're told!"

The man grumbled something before grabbing his cleaning cloth. Before he could get back to work, though, he caught sight of Pryce standing in the background.

"Hey kid, whatcha looking at?"

Taken slightly aback, Pryce was momentarily lost for words. But before he could respond, Sonia had stayed true to her word and wacked the wrench over the man's head. "Time's up; eyes on your task!"

And finally, with a resentful grumble, the man started back on his job of cleaning the welder's mask with his rag.

Sonia turned back to Pryce with a cheery smile. "Come over here, I have Victor's thingamabob all ready for ya!"

Pryce followed the woman towards the back of the room. And here he noticed yet another man that had been hiding from his view, sitting in a back corner on a stool wearing a heavy duty apron and work boots. He was busy tending a furnace fire, but managed to give Pryce a polite nod in greeting.

The two eventually reached a desk near the back, where Sonia picked up the item in question and gave it to Pryce.

"There we go kid! Say hi to Victor and your Dad for me, okay?"

Pryce accepted the piece of metal. "Okay, thank you Ms. Forge."

"Oh, it's Sonia please. No need to be all formal like that."

"Okay, thank you!" Pryce said as he started to turn away, but then hesitated. "Uh, can I ask you a question Ms. … I mean Sonia?"

"Sure you can! Shoot," Sonia said exuberantly.

Pryce thought about whether he should be asking this, but decided to go ahead since he was already halfway to the question. "Did you really change your name to Forge?"

"Oh heck no!" Sonia said. "That's my family name and this is the family profession, I wouldn't change it even if I got married!"

"Oh, I see. That's cool," Pryce responded.

"Aint it? Well, I should get back to overseeing that rascal over there, see ya around kid," she said, giving him a friendly bump on the shoulder with her fist.

"Bye Sonia," Pryce said before he turned and left the workshop with his prize in hand. But before he exited the room, he noticed the said "rascal" give him a rather sly look before turning back to his work. Pryce thought that odd as he walked through the doorway. Sonia had called him Gamous, and he thought that name sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. He'd have to ask his Dad about it at the end of the day; he'd know who this Gamous guy was.

And speaking of the second-in-command look-alike, preoccupied with his thoughts, he almost missed the fact that he was about to pass by the very same man in the hallway. It was unusual to see Lemieux down here in the lower levels, and so Pryce couldn't help but stare as the man approached. Other crew members in the hallway gave the Lieutenant a healthy wide berth, and it wasn't just out of courtesy. There was something about Xerxes Lemieux that demanded respect, even more so than their Captain. Pryce hadn't been able to figure out what it was yet, but, dare he say, there was something dark about him. He always held himself with a straight back, square shoulders, and head high, which might have given the impression of an alert and commanding personality, but to Pryce it just seemed like he was trying to raise himself above everybody else. His eyes always seemed to be narrowed in suspicion, with a frown on his face like he was trying to plot his next move against somebody. And whenever he looked at you it was like he knew you were up to something, even if you weren't. Such was how Pryce viewed their second-in-command.

But like everybody else he stood respectfully aside and let Lemieux pass by. Once the man had gone, everything returned to normal and Pryce hustled on his way, remembering that he was supposed to return to Victor quickly.

o~o~o

The central engine room thrummed as waves of energy pulsed through the core of the ship. Like the main core reactor, the engine room spanned the first three decks, with the core as its central masterpiece. It was a dimly lit room with not very many spots to place main lighting except along the sides, but the light that pulsed through the main cylinder of the reactor provided an almost eerie, purplish glow throughout the entire room. Dr. Adam Trío stood in front of the core, on a kind of observation deck, pulsing light playing shadows across his body. Currently located on level two, he looked out over the huge cylinder with an electronic device in hand. Scrolling down the list of data on the device, he read about statistics from the engine such as how it was running, energy level readings, and so on. So engrossed was he in his little device that he didn't notice the man approaching.

"Dr. Trío," a firm, quiet voice sounded behind him.

Adam jumped and turned to look around. "Oh, Xerxes don't sneak up on me like that!" he said with a good natured grin, but Xerxes hardly registered the reaction.

"I'm here to discuss Victor's most recent report," Xerxes, with his own data device in hand, informed Adam.

"Oh, yes I was just looking over that too. Is there a problem?"

"I understand a section of the engine had to be shut down to replace a part today. Was it defective?"

"Oh no, don't worry about that; this sort of stuff happens all the time. We've got the replacement piece and it'll be installed by the end of the day."

"Hm, make sure it does. Does this sort of thing happen often? I understand the integrity of the very core reactor was at risk because of this?"

"Well like I said this sort of thing is fairly routine; turns and junctions in the inner piping of an engine wear out all the time, and they have to be replaced when they do. And that's when we go in and replace it. Sure it poses a threat to the engine, but only if the worn part is allowed to fully break down." Adam explained.

"How are you sure you will find every worn out piece in time? Xerxes asked.

Adam shrugged with a helpless grin. "We aren't, we just have to keep on doing those inspections so that we find them when they come up."

"Make sure you do so," said Xerxes, before changing the subject. "I am also here to inform you there is an officer meeting in five minutes; you are expected to be there."

Adam looked shocked. "I never knew about this."

"Yes it is a little impromptu. But still, you are expected to attend."

Adam slapped his data device against his palm several times. "Fine, but I might have to cut out early, I've got duties to attend to down here."

"We'll see," was all Xerxes said as he became distracted by his own device.

Adam pursed his lips. It was hard to irritate the science officer, but being pulled from his work without being previously informed definitely set him on edge. Nevertheless he turned and walked out of the engine room, leaving the second in command behind. Xerxes finally looked up from his data readings a few minutes after Adam had gone. He gazed at the engine core for a minute before turning and following his co-officer out.

o~o~o

At that same moment, a man entered the engine room where Victor and Pryce were working. Having successfully retrieved the engine part, Pryce was being shown by his mentor how to properly install the piece of machinery.

"Excuse me, Mr. Borske," the man spoke up.

Victor turned to find out who had addressed him. Pryce turned as well. He identified the man as Tyrone Megason; he hadn't met him yet, but knew him as the ship's navigator and one of the core officers.

"Ah, Tyrone what can I do for you?" Victor said.

"There's an officer meeting in about five minutes that we're all required to attend," Tyrone stated.

"Oh? When did this happen, it's not on my schedule," Victor said, confused.

"It happened last minute, I didn't hear about it until just a little while ago either. I think Xerxes called it," said Tyrone, almost apologetically.

"Well that's quite alright, I can make due. Pryce, I've shown you what to do, can you handle repairing this machine alone?"

"Uh - Yeah!" Pryce exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Very well, I'll leave you to it then. I should be back in an hour or so, but if you finish before I do feel free to continue our inspection without me."

"O-okay," Pryce said, a little surprised by the sudden freedom granted to him.

Victor got up from where he had been kneeling. After giving Tyrone a polite nod, he promptly left the room. Tyrone didn't leave immediately, but instead watched Victor go before turning back with a friendly smile.

"It's Pryce then isn't it?" he said to the boy still kneeling on the floor.

"Oh, yes! And you're Mr. Megason?"

"Yes. It's a pleasure to meet Adam's son, he's a great scientist," Tyrone replied, offering his hand to shake.

Pryce hadn't been expecting the hand, but he shook it anyway. "Thank you," was all he could think of to say.

"Now, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly are you doing here," the navigation's officer asked, motioning towards the gutted machinery by Pryce's side. "It's sad to say I navigate this ship but I don't know much about what makes it run, but I'm very interested."

"Oh, um I'm, I mean we, Mr. Borske and I, are just replacing an engine piece. To be honest I couldn't give you a very informed explanation, it's either that or Mr. Borske's over-informed one." Pryce finished with a little laugh at the joke he'd made.

Tyrone just smiled, although it didn't look very enthusiastic. "Well we all know what Victor sounds like when he gets into one of his topics," he said. "Hey, how about one of these days we get together over lunch and we can talk about our common interest, huh?"

"Oh, uh uh yeah, sure!" Pryce answered, a bit taken aback by the sudden offer.

"Well then, I'll see you around," Tyrone said, swiftly finishing their conversation. And with a final glance at the exposed engine, he turned and left.

Pryce wasn't quite sure what to make of the whole encounter. Tyrone seemed like a nice enough guy, but the whole conversation felt just a little awkward. He'd only agreed to the meeting out of politeness, and he hoped Tyrone would just forget about it. But he didn't have to worry about that right now, as he had a more pressing matter to attend to as he tried to remember what he was supposed to be doing with the piece of machinery that was in his hand.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: So is it weird that there's a forgery inside a spaceship? Nope not at all. ;)<p> 


	4. One Year In

Author's Notes: Once again, a significant time jump between this chapter and the last. There's one last introduction in this chapter, and then you'll have officially met all the main characters!

School's back in session now, so expect slow updates. And... that's it, on with the show!

* * *

><p>******* Personal Log *******<p>

Crew Member: Dr. Adam Trío, Science Officer

Date: 9 February 2053

Time: 21:17

Entry #364:

Tomorrow's a big day! It marks the first year anniversary of this voyage. Goodness, has it been a year already? I can't believe it; I've gotten so used to life on this ship that the time just flew by. It really is amazing how adaptable human beings are, up until one year ago we had lived our entire lives on our planet Earth, and then we spend one year on a ship traveling through the vast expanse of space and we've already assimilated to this new lifestyle. At least I have.

Well to recap the year, I've estimated we've traveled about 223 years into Earth's future now. Everything's been working smoothly, a few hiccups here and there but that's to be expected.

We gained a new member to our crew only about a month into the trip; our stowaway is fitting in a lot better now. He prefers to work as a general maintenance worker, which suits us all fine. He still sets Mack off occasionally; those two definitely don't work well with each other. But our good captain keeps the peace.

In other news, my son has become a full-fledged apprentice of Victor's. He's learning so much, I see a bright future for him. Although he did break his wrist in May while he was trying to lift a rather heavy piece of machinery. It's healed up now, but I supposed that's just what happens to boys his age. Goodness, he's a year older since we left.

Let's see what else, we all had a bit of a scare when several people came up sick several months ago, but our medical officer Jett put a stop to that. Turns out it was just the common cold, but you can never be too careful in a closed environment like this ship. And since I'm on the topic, our population on board has not dwindled by one since the beginning. It's good to see we have a healthy community on board.

Nothing else of real significance has happened that is worth reporting. It's been a good year; let's hope that's a sign of safe voyaging to come.

******* End Log Entry *******

The halls of _The Ark_ were bustling with activity. It was the one year anniversary of their voyage, and most everybody had been given the day off, with only a skeleton crew of volunteers to run the ship. The passengers and crew were being treated with fancy meals, the day off of school for the kids, and various activities throughout the day. Therefore today was not the day to sleep in or read a book or stare listlessly out the windows.

Among the hustle and bustle, a mid-sized man worked his way through the hallways. He used his square shoulders to push his way through the unusually thick crowds that blocked his way. The huge turnout wasn't surprising to the man; this was significant day after all. But what he couldn't understand was why the day of celebration had to take place on one of the days he'd scheduled most of his patients for their annual checkups. Jett Washington, the ship's chief medical officer, was busy tracking down the patients that had failed to show up for their appointments yesterday. He was annoyed to have to do this, after all he had better things to do on a busy day like this, but he wasn't necessarily angry about the situation. He _was_ on his break, but it was all part of the job and if he needed to get out of his office to round up some patients, then that was what he was going to do.

After some pushing and jostling, the man was able to get himself out of the hallway and found himself in the mess hall on deck seven. Two of his no-shows were in there, and another one in the lounge room one floor up. Once Jett had tracked down several of his patients and rescheduled their appointments, he looked at the next name on his list and grumbled in consternation. This one was not going to be easy to find.

Jett's next patient wasn't anywhere on the recreation deck or either of the two mess halls. He wasn't anywhere near the labs nor was he in the medical wing. Jett even looked around the command deck and made a house call at the patient's room. Half an hour later the doctor was still without his patient, so he decided he needed some help.

Mack Adams was busy working crowd control at the rear end of the recreation deck. Standing in the shadows of a corner with his arms crossed, the head security officer watched as groups of people passed by, talking and laughing as they enjoyed their day off. But Mack had no time for fun and games; he was all serious as he kept an eye out for any unruly partiers. It was just another day on the job.

Mack was busy watching a group of rowdy teenagers when his handheld communication device beeped, indicating that somebody wanted to talk to him. He answered to the medical officer. _::Mack, do you know where Amal Gamous is?::_ Jett asked when his call had been accepted by the man.

Mack didn't take his eyes off the potential offenders as he answered the question. "How should I know where the punk likes to hang out?"

_::Hm, let's see, because you're always talking about how we should have never given him free reign of the ship and that he's a potential threat::_ the medical officer said incredulously through the comm-device. _::Wouldn't it then be ridiculous to assume that you don't keep tabs on his location at all times?::_

"It's impossible to keep track of one person's location on a day like this. Especially when it comes to that kid," Mack grunted.

_::So you don't know where he is.::_

"No" Mack finally conceded."But try the other recreation rooms. He's usually on this deck somewhere."

_::Thank you Mack,::_ Jett said in gratitude. Mack simply grunted in response as he turned back to monitor the room's happenings.

After _another_ ten minutes of searching the recreation deck, Jett found himself back in the lounge room. So far he'd been unable to find his missing patient, but now he was looking at somebody else who might be able to help in his search. Or some people rather; Quinton, Sonia, and Nicolas were sitting around a table playing poker with a few other men. Jett approached the table just as Sonia pushed in her entire lot of earnings, which included a few nickels and pennies, a pen, some hair bobbins, and a pair of ornate earrings. "I'm all in," she said.

The three men who were still in the game, Quinton among them, stared at Sonia as they tried to decide their own moves. Jett stopped and watched with a smile as he anticipated the outcome of the standoff. Finally one of the men threw down his hand of cards in a fold. The woman stared sedately back at the remaining two, before the second man folded as well. That left Quinton, who continued to challenge Sonia in the stare down, before he pushed in his lot as well. "I'm in too," he said.

Sonia's face split into a broad grin as she showed her hand. "Well lookie what I've got here!" she said, showing a straight flush of cards. Quinton groaned and leaned back in his chair in defeat, putting down his losing hand. Sonia gathered up her winnings, never losing the grin of victory. "If I keep beating you boys like this you're all gonna walk out of this room today without any clothes on your backs!"

As the players began to reset the game, Jett approached their table. Quinton caught sight of the doctor before he had the chance to say anything. "Hey doc, what's up?" he greeted.

"Hello Quinton," Jett returned. "I was hoping you'd be able to help me. Do any of you know where Amal is?"

"Oh pft," Quinton scoffed. "When that guy's not on duty he practically disappears, you know that! Why are you looking for him anyway?"

"Oh," Jett sighed. "He skipped his annual checkup yesterday. I need to find him to reschedule it."

"Well good luck with that," Nicolas spoke up as he shuffled the deck of cards. "But if you really want to find him, Ebony usually knows where he is."

"Does she?" Jett asked.

"Oh yeah," Sonia joined in on the conversation. "It's weird whatever those two have going on between them. But you're right, that girl's usually the only one that can find that rascal Gamous. Hey, if you want to find Ebony though, I last saw her up on deck two, port side, reading some book by the windows earlier today."

"Why would she be reading a book on a day like this? That's what she does every other day?" Nicolas asked.

"Like we don't do this every week?" Quinton countered sarcastically.

"Well, thank you," Jett spoke up. "I'll go find her."

"Good luck!" Quinton called to him as the doctor left. He turned back just as Nicolas was showing one of the other men at the table a card trick. Sonia rapped the chemist's knuckles when she deemed he was taking too long and told him to deal the cards.

After going up five decks and traversing the length of the port side of the ship, Jett finally found Ebony. True to Sonia's account, the biologist was curled up on a padded window ledge, lost inside a rather large book on entomology. She didn't notice the chief medical officer until he was by her side and he cleared his throat. "Ebony, hello."

She looked up, startled slightly until she recognized the man. "Oh hey Jett, can I help you?"

"Yes actually," Jett said. "Amal missed his annual appointment with me yesterday and I need to find him so I can reschedule. Would you happen to know where he is?"

Ebony set her book down in her lap, finger placed between the pages so she wouldn't lose her spot, and looked up at Jett. "What makes you think I know where he is?"

Jett shrugged. "I was told you usually do." When Ebony didn't respond, but instead looked away with a slightly irritated expression, Jett continued. "Ebony, I've spent at least a half hour looking for him, and I do have other duties today. So, _do_ you?"

Ebony sighed. "Yeah I do," she finally conceded. "He's down in the daycare section, helping to watch the kids."

"Really?" Jett said, surprised by the revelation.

"Yeah," Ebony confirmed as she opened her book and settled down again. "Their regular sitter called out 'sick,'" she explained, emphasizing the unlikeliness of the event by air quoting the last word. "So he volunteered to help out."

"Huh, the one place I didn't think to look," Jett said thoughtfully. "I didn't know he enjoyed working with kids."

"Yeah well he acts like a child himself so it's only fitting that he likes to hang out with them."

"Well, thank you," said Jett as he turned to leave.

"Yup," was all Ebony said in return as the doctor left her in peace again.

o~o~o

Down on deck five, gasps and splattered applause could be heard through the hallways near the stern of the ship. Inside the daycare center nearby, a crowd of kids were sitting on the floor around a man who himself sat on a stool. When the dark-haired man seemingly pulled a small piece of candy out of a boy's ear, the children applauded again in delight. The man grinned. "Now kids, if you multiply one piece of candy by four, then what do you have?"

The kids all gaped their mouths in seemingly exaggerated states of thought. "A bajillion pieces of candy!" one of the boys shouted, "A pony!" suggested another little girl. When none of them were able to produce the correct answer, the man clasped his hands together as if hiding something in them. "You have... four pieces!" he said as he dramatically opened his hands and flourished four candies where the one used to be.

The trick was met with a chorus of _Whoa'_s and more applause by the young audience.

"But just four pieces isn't very good, now is it?" the man continued.

"_Noooo!_" the kids responded enthusiastically.

"So how many do we have if we add nine to four?"

"A bajillion!" the same boy from before responded.

"We have... thirteen!" the man finished as he mysteriously pulled eight more candies from behind his back. He received more applause and cheers. "Now, I can't eat these all on my own, I wonder who wants to help me?" When every child proceeded to raise their hand and shouted "_me me me!_" the man laughed and handed the candies to the thirteen children that were seated around him. "Here ya go kids, but don't forget to share," he said.

"Oh, oh, mister Amal!" one child suddenly shouted and raised his hand in the air.

Amal grinned. "Yes mister John?"

"I heard you can turn invisible!" the boy proclaimed.

"Is that so?" Amal asked. The kids all turned to the man with wide eyed amazement. "Yeah!" they shouted and "do it do it!"

"Whoa, whoa there, kids, hang on there," he said as he held his hands up pacifyingly. "I can't just do it like that; my magical powers need time to gather first!"

"Awww," the children chorused. Amal was about to continue with the entertainment when he glanced up and saw, through the windows that displayed the outside hallway, Jett approaching. "Oh uh, hey kids it looks like I'm going to have to cut this session short today." The children protested but Amal reassured them that he'd be back tomorrow. He got up and snuck over to the door that led out into the hallway. But instead of going through the door, he flattened himself against the wall next to the door and waited. Thinking this looked silly, the children started to giggle, but Amal motioned for them to be silent. The other adults in the room just rolled their eyes. In a moment the automatic sliding door swooshed open and Jett walked in. But just before the door closed, Amal slipped out and into the hall, undetected by the doctor.

Once he was safe in the hallway, Amal snuck a quick glance back into the daycare center through the window. He grinned slyly when he saw the other caretakers explaining to Jett his recent departure, and then silently fled down the hall when Jett swiftly turned and marched out of the room, seemingly in anger and frustration.

It was easy for Amal to avoid being seen by the chief medical officer. He knew why the doctor was looking for him, and the truth was he didn't care about the appointment. He just thought it was fun leading the doctor on a merry chase around the ship. He'd known Jett would eventually come looking for him, and he wanted to see how long it would take for the doctor to find him.

Once Amal was safely away from the vicinity of the searching doctor, he started to meander through the hallways. There was really nowhere else for him to be, since he had the day off of work and at the moment he didn't really feel like hitting the recreation deck, with it being so crowded on a day like this and all. Eventually he passed by a window, and stopped to stare at the black expanse of space outside. He didn't normally like to do this. Usually some job he was doing kept him occupied, and when he wasn't busy he stayed well away from the windows. But here he was, nothing to do and stuck standing by a window. Suddenly Amal felt his happy mood quickly draining away as he stood and stared into the vast stretches of space that were laid out in front of him. Suddenly he could feel just how much space surrounded the ship he was in, surrounding him; billions of miles of space separating him from the planet Earth that was so very far away. Although, it wasn't necessarily that he was missing Earth that made him feel so down, it was the feeling of being isolated on this little bubble that was _The Ark_ in the middle of the endless sterility of space that made him depressed. So much open space. Amal was a man that liked to blend in, stay low key, but here on this ship he felt like everywhere he turned there was somebody looking at him, and nowhere to hide. Sometimes he didn't know why he ever snuck on board this ship, would he have preferred he stayed on Earth in the middle of a nuclear war instead of staying on this cramped ship for six years?

Amal sighed and looked away. Now he was in one of those moods, the kind of mood where you're depressed but don't feel like doing anything to make yourself feel better. He needed a place to sit and be alone to wallow in his misery. And he knew a good place to do it.

So the man set out again. He found the nearest elevator and took it up the very highest deck onboard (not like height mattered here, this was space: up was down, left was right). Stepping out on deck thirteen, Amal set out for the port end of the ship where a large and roomy observatory was located. He was hoping that today the room would be relatively empty. No such luck though. Amal poked his head around the doorframe and immediately saw that, among a few other people scattered about the room, the center table was occupied by Captain Christopher Angle, Second in Command Xerxes Lemieux, Adam Trío, and Victor Borske. If they had been anybody else Amal would have been okay with it, but he wasn't so comfortable being in the same room with four of the higher-ups. Amal withdrew his head and left; there was still one place he knew he could go to get some peace and quiet. However, the quickest way was to take the stairs this time.

Back in the observatory, the four officers were enjoying some drinks together from the ship's scarce alcohol reserves in celebration of today's anniversary. After about half an hour of idle chatting, the conversation fell into a lull. Christopher was the first to break the silence when he raised his glass to his fellow officers. "Well my friends, here's to a successful year of travel!"

"Here, here!" Adam seconded, while Xerxes and Victor raised their own glasses in silence, but also in agreement.

"Two more years until the stop, and then another three until Earth," Adam said after they had all taken a swig from their drinks.

"Let us hope the years go by swiftly and without any problems," Victor added.

"I'll second that," Christopher replied before taking another drink from his glass. "Adam," he said after his drink. "Wasn't Pryce going to join us? Or did he find something better to do than hang out with a bunch of old officers?" he teased.

"I think he's doing something for Victor, am I right?" Adam responded and turned to his colleague with the question.

"Yes, Pryce is performing his daily inspection on the engines down on deck two," Victor confirmed.

"Really, you made him work on a day like this?" Christopher asked astonished.

Victor looked defensive. "No I offered him the day off, but he insisted on doing this task. Said it was important to make sure the ship was running properly every day. The boy's dedicated, I'll give him that."

"Well it never hurts to be thorough," Adam responded, clearly proud of his son's positive work ethic.

"Yes indeed," Christopher said thoughtfully. "Speaking of which, did I see Tyrone on the command bridge earlier today? I thought he was supposed to have the day off too?" Now it was Christopher's turn to look at Xerxes questioningly.

"Yes he was," Xerxes replied. "But he too decided to work today."

"Hm, odd, an ensign could have taken his place today, I don't see why he would have chosen to work anyway," Christopher mused.

"Maybe he's working for the same reason Pryce is?" Adam said as he took another drink.

o~o~o

Down one deck on the command bridge, only a few members of the bridge crew were left to run the ship. Short shifts had been doled out so that everyone got the chance to enjoy the day's festivities; as such there had been many shift changes so far, except in one case. Tyrone had been at his station dutifully doing his job all day, except for a lunch break around 1 pm. The navigations officer didn't really care for celebrations and festivities, he felt like he had other important things to do rather than play the day away. Besides, concepts such as years or days didn't matter out here in space, _especially_ when you were traveling at speeds so fast that one day to you was equivalent to 240 days on Earth. So really, they should be celebrating a one year anniversary every one and a half days.

Tyrone sat near the front of the bridge where he had a good view of the windows, not like it mattered to him. For his job he solely relied on a set of instruments that projected the location of objects in the ship's path, such as asteroids or stars, so that Tyrone could navigate the ship around them safely. To be honest it could be a very dull job at times. Tyrone was just staring up into space, in one of those moments when there are no thoughts in your head and you're just trying to pass the time by doing nothing, when movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention. It was simply somebody passing by the command bridge in the hallway, but with all the festivities going on a few decks below, Tyrone had not been expecting anybody to be on this deck unless they were switching out a shift on the bridge, and for some reason it intrigued him. Calling an ensign to take his place, Tyrone left the room and followed the path the shadow figure had taken. Besides, he needed a reason to stretch his legs for a bit.

The figure led Tyrone down the hallway, around a few corners, and eventually to a stairwell near the stern of the ship. He couldn't be sure the person went into the stairs, but by the way the door was just swinging shut when he rounded a corner and by the fact that just about nobody ever took the stairs on this ship, Tyrone could deduce that this was the case. Without a second thought Tyrone entered the stairwell after the figure.

o~o~o

Down on deck two, all was quiet and peaceful. Pryce wandered the halls alone, swinging a toolbox in one hand and holding a digital data storage device in the other. He didn't mind the solitude; in fact he quite enjoyed the peace and quiet at the moment. He had just spent several hours with his friends wandering the decks, playing in the swimming pool, grabbing snacks from the buffet, and all together having a good time. But Pryce was well aware of the job he had to do, and it was really satisfying for him to put himself to work and get something important done. He'll be finished soon and then he'll be back with his friends in time for the movie screening up on deck eight in one hour.

Today this deck was pretty dimly lit and the halls fairly deserted. The few people that were working shifts today had no reason to be up and about, and they mostly stayed at their stations, waiting for the next person to relieve them of their duties so that they can join the festivities just a few decks up. For Pryce, his reason to be down here was to complete his routine inspection on the section of engine he was responsible for. Victor had offered him the day off, but Pryce just didn't feel good about leaving the machinery unattended for even a day.

Once Pryce reached the engine room he flicked on only a few lights; the room was quite big and he was only going to use a small portion of it. Moving over to the side of some machinery, Pryce set his toolbox down and began to open up a panel. It was very quiet, usually the sound of people talking and tools clanking filled the silence, but today Pryce was the only person in the very big engine room. Whereas normally the sound of the core would have just been background noise, it was so quiet today that the pulse of the engine core in the center of the room throbbed through Pryce's body, synching with the beating of his heart. It was a little surreal, and Pryce quite enjoyed it.

The boy was well into his inspection, lost in his work and the soothing rhythm of the thrumming core, when a loud sound startled him suddenly. It was a metallic screeching sound, like bending metal or hinges, that came from the far end of the room. Pryce scrambled to his feet, staring in the direction the sound had come from.

"Hello?" Pryce called nervously into the darkness. There came no response. He took a few tentative steps forward, as if that would allow him to see beyond the island of light that surrounded him. Still no response.

Unnerved, Pryce made his way over to the door that led out into the hallway. He was sure the noise must have been some piece of machinery working like normal, but a little more light would certainly help ease his sudden wariness of the darkness. When he neared the door it swooshed open automatically for him, and Pryce was reminded of how dimly lit the hallway was. After a moment of spine tingling nervousness when he realized he was surrounded by darkness, Pryce had to shake himself. He was being ridiculous, a minute ago he had no problem being alone down here, the ship was just making noises and he had no reason to be nervous. Nevertheless Pryce turned on all the lights and finished his task quickly.

Five minutes later Pryce had his toolkit put back together and was hustling out of the engine room, ready to rejoin his friends upstairs in the well-lit and very crowded recreation deck. He hadn't made it ten feet down the hallway when he received his second shock of the day.

"Oh, hello Pryce," came a voice from behind him suddenly.

Pryce nearly jumped out of his socks. He whirled around, his toolbox and all its tools clattering to the floor. He wasn't sure if he was relieved or weirded out to find it was just Tyrone Megason behind him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Tyrone said apologetically.

"Oh, it's okay. I was a little jumpy anyway," said Pryce.

Tyrone looked at the tools that were now scattered over the floor. "What were you doing?" he said. When Pryce gave him a strange look, Tyrone continued "Down here I mean. You should be up enjoying the festivities."

"Oh, uh I was just doing a routine inspection. I was heading upstairs just now actually," Pryce responded as he began to pick up his tools.

When Tyrone made no move to help him, Pryce tried at idle conversation. "So, what're _you_ doing down here?" he asked, realizing too late that he probably wasn't supposed to ask an officer such a thing.

But Tyrone merely smiled at the question. "I was just going for a walk," he said.

"Oh, okay," Pryce responded. He quickly got his toolbox back together and stood up to leave. "See ya," he said, again realizing it was probably inappropriate to say such an informal thing to a higher up. Despite this, Pryce turned and left.

"Have fun upstairs," Tyrone called back.

Pryce hustled to the elevator, not stopping until the doors had closed and he was shooting upstairs. He didn't know why he was so unnerved by the encounter, probably just because he was already spooked from being inside the engine room alone. That plus the fact that the conversation he'd had with Tyrone had been a little odd. Pryce had only talked to the man several times since their first encounter nearly a year ago. He was glad the officer had never followed up on his offer for them to have lunch together. Pryce didn't like feeling this way about other people, and he'd never say it to anybody else, but he couldn't help but think that Tyrone Megason was a weird guy.


	5. The Stop

Author's Notes: And another time jump. This will be the last major time jump for several chapters. It's a short chapter, but you'll see why ;). And just to let you know, it'll be a while yet before some transformers stuff comes into this story, so be expecting that.

And for AwesomeSauce221B: when indeed will they meet the bots? It might be a lot longer than you might be expecting. Like, a lot. Remember, there won't be any major or necessarily common characters in this story. So keep that in mind as you read.

And for Worstcase: Yup, they're peaceful journey's going to get a lot more interesting, well, in this very chapter! Be prepared!

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><p>******* Personal Log *******<p>

Crew Member: Dr. Adam Trío, Science Officer

Date: 9 February 2055

Time: 2043

Entry #1094:

It's finally here! Three years ago this ship left Earth, and ever since then we've been hurtling through space, traveling farther and farther away from our home planet the entire time. But now it's time to turn back home! We're officially half-way through our trip, and so tomorrow is the day we stop our engine, turn around, and head back. It'll be another three years before we get back to Earth, but it's certainly great for morale onboard to know that we're half-way there.

At this point in time, we are 669 years into the future relative to the day we left Earth. It's hard to think about what Earth might be like right now, what life might be like if the nuclear war ever did take place. The best we can hope for is that Earth is thriving and we'll return to a perfectly healthy and welcoming planet.

Well getting back to life onboard this ship, tomorrow is also the third anniversary of our voyage, but since tomorrow is the day we stop and restart the engine core, the celebration took place last week. Ever since then we've all been busy getting the ship ready for the big day. My son has been kept especially busy by Victor, so busy that he's had to skip the last two days of school. He's been running tests and doing inspections the entire time.

On a brighter note, our population has actually grown by several numbers over the last year! Yes, we are happy to welcome three new small passengers to our crew. It does us good to see new life springing up before we've even reached Earth.

There doesn't seem to be anything else of great importance to report. All in all, this voyage has been a success so far. We can only hope that our luck continues for another three years.

******* End Log Entry *******

Pryce hustled along the twelve floor of _The Ark_. He rushed past crew members without so much of a glance in their direction and they did the same. Today was an important day, and everybody had something to do or a place they had to be at. For Pryce, he really needed to be down on the second floor with Victor so that he could help prep the ship's engine. Unfortunately his father had left some important schematics and tables down in the engine room when he had left to get to the bridge, and since Pryce had young legs (as Victor had put it) it was up to him to run the paperwork all the way up to the top of the ship.

After a minute or so of jogging, Pryce finally caught sight of the big double doors that guarded the main command bridge. They opened automatically for him and so he wasted no time getting up to the main console where his father was standing. He had to avoid colliding with a few people up here; the bridge was busier today than any other day Pryce had seen it. Every station had somebody sitting or standing at it, operating some device, reviewing statistics, or preparing a machine for operation. Pryce easily identified all the main officers on deck: Christopher sat in the captain's chair talking with Xerxes, Tyrone was at his station reviewing some schematics, Quinton sat by several other crew members as he consulted with them, and Adam stood near the back of the bridge with his back facing the room as he surveyed a large screen full of schematics and data readouts. When Pryce reached his father he shoved the clipboard full of papers into his hand with a breathless "Here."

Adam quickly took the offering and immediately flipped through several of the pages. "Thank you," he said to his son. "But you really need to get back to the engine room, we stop in less than half an hour!"

"I know, see you later," Pryce responded quickly before he turned and left the room. Now there was no time to waste. As he hurried down the hallway he nearly ran into Mack, who was hustling in the opposite direction. "'Scuse me," Pryce muttered as he skirted around the security director. He then went immediately to the elevator and hit the button for the second floor. He had to share the small space with several other crew members who were on their way to their own stations throughout the ship.

First they passed deck eleven. Nicolas and Ebony should be done securing their labs by now. Any damage sustained to the biology lab could be detrimental to their mission, and they certainly didn't need to lose anything from the chemistry lab. Deck ten was next, where Jett should have already secured his medical bay. And then decks nine, eight, and seven whizzed by. These three decks should be completely empty at this point in time. All passengers were required to stay in their rooms on decks six and five during the stop, where specially designed units would keep them safe during the physically hazardous gravitational forces that will be generated when the ship slows down from near light speed to zero. Deck four was where the elevator stopped first and several people got off. There were some stations around the engine that needed to be manned on this deck. The same situation went for deck three. This was where Sonia's workshop was also located, but her forgery would have been closed down by now. Finally the doors opened to deck two, where Pryce and the remaining crew members got off. Here they each parted ways, where Pryce hurried towards the engine room and to his mentor, Victor.

"My boy, you're late! Come, we've got lots of work to do," Victor called and Pryce hurried over to the man's side. He gave the boy a tool and the two immediately got to work. They needed to be sure that the engine was working in peak condition. This day was the first milestone in their journey, and any failure today could result in catastrophe for their mission.

o~o~o

Everything was in place half an hour later. All passengers and crew members were in their secure locations, and the engine had been thoroughly fine-tuned and inspected. Christopher walked up to Adam and looked over the scientist's shoulder at the screen full of data. "Is everything ready?" he asked.

"Victor just gave the all clear," Adam responded. "We're all set Captain."

Christopher nodded. "Good" he said and walked back to his captain's chair and sat down.

"All systems ready Captain," Xerxes said from his side. "We await your command."

Christopher nodded again and turned on the intercom that connected the entire ship. "Attention crew this is your Captain speaking," he said. Immediately the bridge fell silent and throughout The Ark every single person listened to the voice of their leader. "In a few moments we will shut down the ship's core engine. For your own safety, please remain seated until the ship has come to a complete stop and I have given the all clear. In case of emergency, remain calm and follow the appropriate emergency protocols. However, we expect the procedure to go by smoothly and will not take more than a few minutes to complete. Thank you for your patience, Captain out."

After his speech, Christopher turned off the intercom and turned back to the bridge. The last person standing was Adam, who quickly found his seat and buckled himself in. Christopher looked at his navigations officer, Tyrone, who in turn was looking back on him. "Are you ready Megason?" the Captain asked. Tyrone gave a single nod. "Then make it happen," Christopher ordered with finality.

Tyrone turned back to his station and without hesitation grabbed ahold of the lever that controlled the ship's speed and pulled it back nearly all the way.

For a moment time stood still. Everybody on the bridge braced for the expected jolt that was supposed to happen when the ship began it's slow down. Nobody knew exactly how it was going to feel, the jump to super speeds at the beginning of their voyage had been a little bumpy, so it could be presumed that the jump out of super speeds would feel the same. However, after several seconds passed and nothing seemed to have changed, some of the bridge crew looked at each other curiously. Christopher gave Xerxes a questioning look while Adam turned to examine some readouts on a screen nearby.

Down in the engine room, Victor and Pryce as well as the other crew members had secured themselves and were waiting for the engine to be shut down by their commanding officers. About thirty seconds had passed since the captain had finished his message over the intercom and by now the stop should have been initiated.

"I wonder what's taking them so long," Victor said as he sat next to his young assistant.

Pryce didn't say anything as he silently wondered the same thing. He watched the engine core intensely, waiting to see anything at all change in the rhythm of the pulsing core. Suddenly something caught his eye, it happened so fast he didn't know how he saw it, but he knew what it was. Something had sparked behind an electric panel and instantly Pryce knew that something had gone wrong. He knew it in his gut, and he knew that he had been the only one that had seen it, and he knew that he was the only one fast enough to get to that panel and try to repair whatever was now broken. Within less than a second after seeing that spark, Pryce had unstrapped himself from his restraints and was running at full speed towards that electric panel. He could hear Victor yelling at him from behind to get back in his seat; that he needed to be secure during the stop, but he wasn't listening.

Another moment passed for the occupants on the bridge where nothing happened and finally Christopher grew impatient. "Adam, why are we..."

Suddenly a huge bang rocked the ship and jolted everybody in their seat.

Back in the engine room, Victor had unstrapped himself as well and was running towards a now unconscious Pryce. The second the boy had reached the electric panel, an explosion had ripped apart the machine right next to it and threw him into the railing behind him. Pryce was now slumped on the floor while the other crew members rushed around the room, struggling to contain the malfunctioning engine core.

Nobody even had the chance to stabilize the engine before a sudden and violent yank knocked them all off their feet. It was as if the entire ship had jerked backwards of its own accord. Screams echoed around the room as people slammed into walls and pieces of machinery. Victor, who had just barely reached Pryce's side, was thrown backwards and into the same railing that Pryce had hit his head on. Pain exploded across his lower back and he slumped to the floor, suddenly unable to move. He was sure that this was the end. The engine was malfunctioning and it was going to explode or shut down permanently any minute. Their mission had failed.

But then the unexpected happened. Instead of exploding or slowing down, the pulsing engine core started to speed up. Incredibly, the ship itself began to speed up as well, a feat that Victor had thought to be impossible. Faster and faster the ship sped up until the incredible gravitational forces generated by the super-fast speeds were pressing on everybody on board with a deadly force. The ship had been designed to protect the crew against the force generated by near light speeds, but with this kind of acceleration, the ship was reaching the point where it couldn't shield the people onboard any longer. Just before he blacked out, Victor saw sparks flying from machines and people lying unmoving on the floor all over the room.

"Adam! _What's going on?!_" Christopher yelled from where he was glued to his chair on the bridge. Several people had been knocked unconscious from when the ship had yanked violently, and the G-forces from the following acceleration had taken out just about everybody else. The only ones still conscious were Christopher, Adam, and Tyrone.

"I-I'm not sure," Adam responded from his own seat. "The engine seems to be accelerating. It appears, this is incredible, but it appears we've actually reached light speed! This is amazing, it's not supposed to be possible! I..."

"WELL SHUT IT DOWN!" Christopher suddenly bellowed, interrupting the scientist.

"Well I- th-there's nothing I can do Captain," Adam said apologetically.

At a loss for words, Christopher turned and stared at Tyrone. The navigations officer just stared right back at him.

As Christopher began to succumb to the intense gravitational forces that surrounded the ship he heard Adam give his report on the situation. "If my theories are correct, at light speed we should be traveling into the past not the future. We could have traveled hundreds or thousands of years into the past by now."

Tyrone was now slumped unconscious against his console.

"Millions..." Adam continued.

The world around Christopher began to fade away. He blacked out just as Adam said his last word.

"Billions..."


	6. Taking Stock

Author's Notes: Wow, sorry for the long wait! It's been like two months. Didn't mean to do that, but once Autumn quarter got started I had very little time to write, between school and work. Kinda left you on a cliffhanger there too, didn't I? Yeah, oops. I'll try to keep the chapters coming on a regular basis, but I am working on another story right now, and I've set a goal to get a few more chapters for that story out by the time next quarter starts. So don't expect a quick update after this, but hopefully I'll have more time to write next quarter, so we'll just have to see what happens. I don't plan on letting this story die, I've got too many things to do with it in the future! So, it may take a while, but eventually I will get this thing finished!

In the meantime, I would still love to hear from you readers. Any predictions, guesses? Several readers are starting to catch on already. You know who you are, and a million cyber cookies to you for that!

Well, this chapter's a bit gloomy, things are going to be taking a dark turn from here on out, just fyi. And, yeah. I think that's enough chitter chatter. Onto the story!

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><p>Everything was dark. Not dark as in black, but as in without light. Black was the absence of color, of reflected light, but here there was no light to begin with. Something was suppressing him. Although he was free to move about, his body felt encased in some kind of metallic shell. It was disturbing; the darkness pressed in on all sides while the shell covered every inch of him and trapped his body, his very soul, like a prison. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't escape, and he felt completely alone and vulnerable.<p>

Then a presence made itself known to him. It was above him, beside him, inside of him, everywhere. Somehow it was comforting; he didn't know what or who it was, but it was another being with him inside this void, calming him. Then it spoke:

"Child."

...Dad? No, it wasn't his dad, but that was the closest match he could come up with. The voice was deep and warm and the presence eased his discomfort.

"Do not fear."

The voice drew him in and steadied him. For the first time since he'd entered this darkness, it felt more like an actual place shrouded from his vision than an empty void.

"You are destined for great things."

He felt solid ground materialize beneath his feet.

"Come. Find me."

The darkness shifted to blackness, and then began to brighten as a bluish light filled in his surroundings.

"Many trials await you. But you must overcome them, for the future of your people."

As the light intensified, a new world blossomed before his eyes. The blue light came from the ground beneath his feet, shining upward through great crevices and illuminating a planet made entirely of metal. A great city rose above him. Metallic spires jutted into the sky as the buildings shimmered with their own glistening lights. Other cities rose from the ground all around him, all around the world, as he suddenly gained an omnipresent view of the planet. The metallic casing that covered his body prevented him from gasping in air, but his eyes widened in wonder and amazement. He could see how the great metropolises delved deep into the planet, almost to the very core. The planet was alive; it was thriving, and the people, oh the people...

"Pryce?"

A soft voice stirred him in his sleep. Forgetting the events of his dream, Pryce slowly became aware of his surroundings, but he was confused. Something was missing. It was too quiet; too still. He wasn't in his own bed; whatever he was laying on was sparsely padded and cold. Everything around him felt unfamiliar. He wondered where he was and why he couldn't remember what had happened yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that... There was light around him, maybe it was morning? Had he woken up suddenly? He tended to get really confused when he woke up unexpectantly. What time was it? Was there something important he needed to get up for? He could imagine his dad would have woken him up if he had slept past his alarm, so therefore he must be downstairs making breakfast, just like every other morning. Soon his dad should be knocking on his door, ready to take him to school, shouting cheerily: "Rise and shine! The day's moving on without you! Time to get up..."

"Pryce!"

With a jolt Pryce fully woke up. He opened his eyes and took in the scene around him. The only feature that caught his attention at the moment was that he was surrounded by dozens of bunk beds, and every single one was occupied. And there were even more people lying on the floor. Every single available space was taken up by a body. Since he wasn't on the floor, Pryce could only assume he was lying on the same type of bed that he saw around him.

Suddenly everything rushed back to him in an instant. The launch from Earth, living on a spaceship, becoming Victor's assistant, getting to halfway through their trip. Pryce wondered how he could have forgotten the last three years of his life. But why was he _here_? Why were there so many people in the medical bay?

Somebody said something above him, but Pryce didn't register a single word. He turned his head around to see who was there, and immediately regretted the action when his head was assaulted with a pounding ache. Once the pain subsided somewhat, he opened his eyes again and saw his dad staring down at him. The man was smiling, but Pryce noticed weariness in his face.

"Whu..?" Pryce slurred, still feeling groggy.

"How do you feel?" Adam asked softly.

Pryce frowned. "I dunno, my head hurts. What happened?"

Adam's smile faded. "What's the last thing you remember?" he asked.

"Uh," Pryce said. He found he had trouble trying to grasp the last memory he had. He knew where he was and everything, he just had a hard time recalling what he had been doing last. "Oh," he suddenly recalled. "We were preparing for the stop. Did... has the engine been stopped?" That would explain why everything felt so still; the engine was no longer throbbing throughout the ship.

Now there was no hint of happiness left in Adam's face. "I'll explain everything later," he said. "But now that you are awake and well, we must leave. There are others who need this bed."

"Okay," Pryce said, still unsure about what was going on but trusting his dad to do the right thing. He slowly sat up, trying to ignore the throbbing headache he was getting. When he was on his feet, Adam helped steady him and they made their way towards the doorway. Before they left the medical bay, Pryce was able to get a better look around the room. He wondered what was wrong with all these people. Maybe the repercussions from the ship stopping had been more severe than what they had predicted, or maybe the restraints hadn't worked right, or both. Pryce couldn't tell what exactly was wrong with these people, but most of them appeared to be unconscious. He finally spotted Jett near the back of the room. The medical officer was laying a sheet over a man's body, somebody who'd obviously passed away recently. Pryce caught sight of the man's face just before it was covered with the sheet. However, he barely had time to register it before he received a shock: he saw Victor lying on a bed of his own. He had a sheet lying over his legs and was staring up at the ceiling with his hands clasped together over his chest. Just before Pryce and his father left the room, Victor suddenly turned and locked eyes with the boy. The two stared at each other for a moment, and Pryce saw a deep sadness in the engineer's eyes that he'd never seen before. Then they left the room.

Once outside the medical bay, Pryce was further surprised to notice that the hallway was very dimly lit. The lights seemed to be running on half power, if that. It was slightly eerie, made even more so by the fact that there were even more patients sitting against the walls or lying on the floor, mostly silent and still. "Dad, what's happened?" he whispered, afraid to disturb the silent scene.

"Later, son," was all Adam said as he led Pryce away, his grip on Pryce's shoulder noticeably tightening.

Pryce didn't ask any more questions for the rest of their trip, but he definitely came up with many more. The ship was too quiet, and not just because the engine wasn't running. They never encountered a room or hallway that was more brightly lit than the hallway directly outside of the medical bay, and there were some spaces that were completely blacked out. In addition, they didn't encounter another soul during their trip; although there had been a lot of people in the medical bay, Pryce couldn't imagine that the entire ship was out of commission. Was there a sickness going around, an epidemic? And what had gotten _him_ in the medical bay and how long had he been in there? What did this all mean for the mission? How long would it be until they were able to start the ship up again? By the time they reached their quarters on deck twelve, Pryce was very concerned with many wild scenarios running through his head.

Finally their journey was over and they stepped inside the room they shared and Adam immediately set Pryce down on his own bed. "You should get some rest. I'm sorry, but there isn't anything I can give you for that headache of yours. The best remedy is sleep."

Pryce didn't feel like sleeping. "Dad, what's going on?" he asked again, this time with intent.

Adam let out a long sigh as he ran his hand through his hair, which was looking more mussed than usual. He sat down in his chair, having not looked at Pryce since he sat him down on the bed. For a long moment he just stared at the wall, while Pryce looked at him expectantly. Finally he half looked at his son and started talking. "The engine _is _stopped. We haven't moved in about two days."

"Well, why?" Pryce asked. "We were supposed to have started up again after only a couple of hours!"

Adam nodded and held up his hand for Pryce to stop and listen. "There was a... malfunction. We won't be moving again for a while."

"Malfunction? What do you mean, what happened?" Pryce was confused.

Adam let out another sigh. "The engine exploded, Pryce. There's been no time to conduct an inspection, but right now it looks like it's permanently damaged."

Pryce just stared at his father for a long time. "It exploded? How did that happen? Was it a loose screw or something? Did we not maintain it properly?"

"I don't know," Adam interrupted, sounding a little irritated. "Like I said, we haven't had time to determine the cause of the malfunction."

"Wait a minute?" Pryce said, a little irritated himself. He was so stunned by the situation he didn't know how to react. "It's been two days! What do you mean you haven't had the time? Surely there's somebody that could've taken a look?"

Adam shook his head. "Over half of the crew are dead," he said suddenly. Pryce's eyes widened and his mouth gaped in shock. Adam sighed for the third time and rubbed his face. "I am sorry for being so blunt. But when the engine malfunctioned, it didn't stop right away. Instead it sped up and sent the ship into light speed."

"Light speed?! But that's not supposed to be possible, is it?"

Adam smiled painfully. "Apparently it is possible."

"Sooo," Pryce responded slowly as he comprehended the new information. "Your theories. Were they correct?"

Adam gave a halfhearted shrug. "At the moment there is no way of knowing. I can only guess that they are. Which means we might be stuck millions of years in the past right now."

Pryce wasn't so sure how to react to this. He looked down and stared at his feet, contemplating the situation. "And," he finally continued. "The crew."

Adam nodded sadly. "The ship wasn't designed to protect its passengers from such super speeds. The weakest of the passengers, that is, the youngest, didn't survive. A good portion of the rest of the crew succumbed to internal injuries or from objects falling on top of them when the ship sped up. Many more are suffering from brain injuries caused by the gravitational forces of light speed, and are now comatose."

"Wow," Pryce said after a moment. "Well what about me, what happened to me?"

"Victor tells me that when the engine first showed signs of malfunction, you tried to repair it. When the explosion happened, you were knocked backward and your head hit a railing behind you. A concussion, that's all."

Pryce suddenly sat up straight upon hearing the name of his mentor. "Victor! I saw him in the medical wing! Is he going to be okay?"

Adam gave his son another sad smile. "He was thrown against some railing as well. But he hit his back and injured his spinal cord. He's paralyzed from the waist down."

Pryce gaped again. "He's _paralyzed_?! But... was he trying to repair the engine too?"

Adam seemed hesitant to answer. Only a split second of silence passed before the man opened his mouth to answer, but Pryce caught on. "Oh no," he said. "It was me, wasn't it? He tried to help me, and then..."

"Pryce don't," Adam responded sharply. "Don't do that to yourself. What happened happened, I'm just grateful that the both of you are alive."

Pryce didn't look convinced. He lowered his head and placed it in his hands. This was all so much to take in; he didn't know what to do.

"We've talked about this too long. You need rest. Get some sleep," Adam said as he stood up.

"No," Pryce suddenly protested and he stood up too. "I want to go see the engine, maybe I can find out what happened!"

"Absolutely not!" Adam retorted suddenly. "Sit down! You have a concussion, you need to rest!"

Shocked by his father's sudden outburst, Pryce did as he was told. His father rarely shouted at him.

Adam covered his face in apparent shame or frustration, or both. "Just, stay here," he said wearily. "I have things I need to do, I'll be back. Please, just get some sleep." And with that he turned and left the room, leaving his son sitting on the bed, stunned.

o~o~o

Pryce did what he had been told to do. He stayed in the room and even got a little sleep. It was a fitful sleep though; his headache never fully went away, and he couldn't stop thinking about the engine failure. Several hours later and Pryce was lying on the bed, wide awake. His dad wasn't back yet and he had an overwhelming urge to get up and move about. He needed to look at the engine; we wanted to see for himself the damage. He was sure he could do _something_ about it. And so with a little bit of guilt – he hated disobeying his father – Pryce got out of bed and left the room.

He experienced the same sense of isolation in the hallways as he had before. Completely silent, completely deserted. Half of the crew: gone. Pryce had a hard time digesting that piece of information, and so he decided to keep his mind off of it. He had a job to do; he needed to figure out what had happened in the engine during the stop. Could it have been some worn down part of the engine that they failed to find and replace? It must have been; because as much as he hated the idea that it was his, Victor's or another engineer's negligence that could have led to such a catastrophe, what else could it be?

o~o~o

"Sabotage!" Mack pounded the table with his fist. He glanced around the table. Christopher, Xerxes, Adam, Ebony, Quinton, and Tyrone were all there, Jett was still in the medical wing treating patients and Victor was still recovering. All of the present officers were now staring at Mack. "It must have been!" the man continued. "And you know who did it? That Amal kid! He's a freaking stowaway, he's the prime suspect!"

Christopher rubbed his face. "Mack we're not here to accuse anybody of anything."

"Well isn't the purpose of this here meeting to figure out what we're doing about our situation? Mack asked.

"Yes, and that has nothing to do with accusing somebody of treason!" Christopher said harshly. Normally calm and collected, the captain has been under a lot of stress lately. Everybody has been. But the pressure was on him to figure out a solution, and everybody could see the stress beginning to build in their Captain.

Mack, however, was stubborn and despite the fact that his Captain was under a lot of pressure, he held fast to his opinion. "The way I see it there are two possible situations," the security director pushed back. He held up one finger, "One, it was a malfunction. Or two," he held up a second finger, "It was sabotage. And if it was sabotage, then figuring out who did it has everything to do with the purpose of this meeting!"

"Our main concern is getting our ship running again," Xerxes suddenly said, realizing that his Captain was in no mood to argue his case at the moment. "Launching an investigation right now will do us no good and waste time."

"No good?!" Mack burst at the second in command. "If there's a traitor onboard, and he's still alive, then he's sure as hell is going to do it again! How is it a waste of time if we can prevent this from happening a second time?"

"Mr. Adams if you say one more word on this matter you will be dismissed from this meeting!" Christopher suddenly shouted. "Is that clear?"

Many of the officers shifted uneasily at Christopher's sudden outburst. Mack didn't look happy at all, and he snorted in contempt, but he eventually looked down at the table and didn't say another word.

"Good." Christopher said, sounding harsher than he intended. But he pretended to ignore the fact that his bad mood was showing. He looked down the table at his communications officer. "Quinton, how is the crew holding up?"

Quinton looked like he really didn't feel like talking right now, but he obliged for the sake of the meeting. "Well morale is pretty down right now. What else would you expect? To give it to you bluntly, lots of people think it's all over and have given up. With so many passengers lost, and the children..." here Quinton sort of hunched his shoulders as if ashamed for bringing the subject up. "Things are pretty hopeless."

"Is there anything you suggest we should do?" Christopher asked.

Quinton shrugged. "Just don't make it look like _we've_ given up. I'll do whatever I can to keep spirits high, but I think the best thing for you to do would be to pick up the pieces and keep moving forward. Give everybody something to do, that'll keep them from dwelling too much on the bad situation."

Christopher nodded. "I'll leave it to you to organize everybody in groups. I don't care what you have them do, cleaning, repairing, helping in the medical wing, just get them doing something."

Quinton agreed and the Captain turned to the next person at the table. "Ebony, how did your lab hold up?"

The biologist looked up when her name had been called. Although everybody was feeling pretty down at the moment, she looked the most lost. Her expression was blank and her short report came in an almost monotone voice. "The seed vault has survived. But most all the eggs and embryos died. A lot of my equipment has been damaged too."

Ebony stopped short and looked back down at the table. Her fellow officers looked at each other uncomfortably, but nobody volunteered to end the silence. Although the loss of human life was a much more immediate concern at the moment, they all know what the loss of the biology lab meant for the overall mission. Considering the worst case scenario, when, or now _if_, they got back to Earth, they needed those organisms to help reintroduce some of the more important species into the ecosystems where needed. It was great that they had seeds, and therefore plant life, but without the other precious life forms that had been safeguarded in the lab – from pollinating insects to the major prey and predator species – the future for Earth was grim.

When Ebony didn't say anything else and the silence stretched for too long, Christopher cleared his throat and responded. "Alright. That doesn't affect our immediate situation. But word of this does not reach the passengers or crew, am I understood?"

The other officers all nodded in agreement.

"Ebony, please do whatever you can to secure your lab. Save whatever you can," Christopher continued. Ebony gave a faint "Yes sir," in turn. Finally the Captain turned to the science officer who was sitting to his left. "Adam, what's the ship's status?"

Now it was Adam's turn. "We're essentially dead in the water," he began. "With the main core reactor down, we've lost power not only to the engines but to the rest of the ship. We do have some power stored up in our emergency reserves, as you all should know. I've converted most of it to maintaining life support onboard and to the medical wing. If used sparingly, it can last us quite a while."

"How long is 'quite a while'?" Christopher asked.

"Well, if my calculations are correct, perhaps several months. Perhaps longer if we are frugal with our energy consumption."

Christopher nodded, absorbing this piece of information. "And what can you tell me about our engines?"

Adam sighed and looked down at a few sheets of paper in front of him. "There's not much to say," he said. "I haven't had time to determine how well off the actual thrusters are. But it's clear that both the power converters completely blew out during the malfunction. As of now, it is impossible to tell what caused the explosions," and here Adam looked pointedly at Mack. "But the main core reactor has been compromised. It used up a massive amount of energy, possibly all of its energy, when it pushed the ship into light speed. Now it's completely shut down, and we don't have the energy supply to start it back up. Without that reactor we have nothing to fuel the engines."

Christopher rubbed his forehead. "Then how long will it take to get it running again?" he asked.

"...Sir," Adam began after a short and uncomfortable silence. "I have no way of knowing at the moment how much antimatter is left. Without antimatter there is no way we can restart the reactor. And it is likely that the power converters are beyond repair. Now don't take that statement as a fact," he quickly said when Christopher gave him a foreboding look. "We won't know how it really is until Victor can take a look at it. Until then, the engine will have to remain broken."

For a while Christopher didn't say anything. Then he spoke: "Well then we'll just have to get everything else in working condition until then. But Adam, I must ask. Is it true that we could have traveled into the past when we were at light speed?"

All eyes turned to the scientist. Adam gave a helpless shrug. "Captain, that's just a theory. I have no scientific proof to back up that claim. I may be able to determine roughly what time period of the universe we are in by observing the stars around us, but I haven't had the time to conduct any such observations. I believe that our main priority right now should be to the ship and its crew and we should focus on getting both in working order again."

Christopher gave a nod in agreement. "I believe you are right," he said. "Do what you can with the repairs for the time being, and hopefully Victor will be able to help soon. The rest of you have jobs to do, you are dismissed."

And suddenly the meeting was over. Tyrone, who had barely spoken a word during the entire time, was the first to leave. The others soon followed. In no time it was only Xerxes and Christopher who had yet to leave. The Captain didn't look like he was going anywhere soon as he just sat in his chair and stared at the table. Xerxes stood up before addressing the other man, "What do you think of Mack's theories? That this could have been sabotage?" he asked.

Christopher let out a long sigh and shook his head. "I don't know. I really doubt that anyone could have comprised this ship. Who would want to? What would be their motivation?"

"You'd be surprised what some people are capable of doing just because they want to," Xerxes said. "Is sabotage really more unlikely than an engine failure?"

"Of course it is!" Christopher argued. "A trip like this has never been done before. We never really knew what we were getting ourselves into. And with such an advanced engine that we were using, that's never been tested before, it shouldn't be that surprising that there was an accident. And don't give me that look Xerxes, why would somebody sabotage the ship? What could possibly be their motive?"

Xerxes shrugged. "All I'm saying is that we should keep our options open," he said. And then without another word he exited the room, leaving Christopher all alone with his thoughts.

o~o~o

A lull had descended upon the medical wing. The patients who still occupied the room had all been stabilized and were now recovering. Jett Washington sent a final gaze across the room and, seeing that everything was settled and that his assistants didn't need any help, he entered his office. With a heavy sigh he sank into his chair; this was the first time he's allowed himself to rest since the explosion in the engine room and the resulting catastrophe that had put so many of the ship's passengers in his medical wing. He looked at the computer monitor that was staring back at him blankly from his desk, as if waiting for him to turn it on. There was still so much work to do, he needed to update the medical records of all the patients he'd tended to and file a report on the entire situation. It could take him all night to complete the work, but he was already so tired.

Jett leaned back in his chair and rubbed his face. This was a medical officer's worst nightmare. Before this mission, back on Earth, he'd dedicated most of his medical career in the army where he'd been a fairly respected medic on the field, and so he's dealt with some pretty dire situations. However, in those situations, he only had to work on injured soldiers, people who had willingly put themselves in dangerous situations. All of the casualties he'd seen today? They were just civilians. No battle had put them in his medical care, it had been a disaster that had taken so many lives and injured so many others.

For the longest time Jett just stared at his blank computer screen, but then he had to shake himself, realizing that he'd been reminiscing when he should have been working. He was just reaching over to the power button on his computer when a polite knock on his door made him jump. He took a moment to settle himself before he called out, inviting the person on the other side of his door into the room. When it was Xerxes who stepped through the doorway, Jett had to keep himself from appearing startled. He had been expecting one of his assistants. However, in a matter of seconds he had composed himself enough to give a polite response to the second in command's presence.

"Sir," Jett said as he stood up. "What can I do for you?"

Xerxes walked up to the medical officer's desk and leaned slightly against the surface with his hands spread apart. His dark eyes glanced over the top of the desk for a brief moment, lingering momentarily on the startup screen that was glowing from the computer monitor, before looking back up at the medic's face. "You weren't at the meeting," he said bluntly.

Jett blinked before replying. "I had to tend to my patients, you know that."

Xerxes nodded once in acknowledgment of that statement. "Yes. But now you must give me your report on the state of the crew."

"I was just about to write that report. It will be ready by tomorrow," Jett said, frowning slightly.

"I would prefer to hear it with my own ears," the second in command said frankly. He sat down in the chair next to him and waved Jett towards his own chair, indicating he wished for the medical officer to sit as well.

Jett let out a barely contained sigh as he took his own seat. He was in no mood to give a report at the moment, but he was in no place to disobey an order from the second in command. He stared at the computer monitor and tapped his desk for a moment before he began.

"A little less than 250 people died when the ship jumped to light speed. Those deaths were almost completely caused by the massive g-forces created by the ship's acceleration, but others were also killed from machinery collapsing on them or from them being thrown violently against hard surfaces. No child under the age of fifteen survived." Here Jett paused for a moment as he paid a silent respect for the lost lives he had just mentioned. After a deep sigh he continued. "Many of those who did not die during the acceleration died soon afterward from brain aneurysms or internal bleeding caused by blunt force trauma. Although my staff and I could have saved many more than what we did, we were overwhelmed by the flood of victims and many died before they could have received medical treatment. There are seven people who are currently in a comatose state and are being kept on life support. Overall, 47 passengers and 31 crew members and officers survived. Of those people that are alive, nearly every single one is suffering from some kind of injury, such as bruises, broken bones, whiplash, or some minor internal bleeding."

Here Jett finally stopped and glanced up to see how the second in command had reacted to the report. Xerxes hadn't said a single word during the medical officer's summary, and was instead looking off to the side with a look a deep contemplation on his face.

"Four fifths of the crew are dead, Xerxes," Jett whispered as he finished his report.

For a while longer Xerxes remained silent. Jett waited for a response, and was finally rewarded when the man looked up at him, a hard glint in his eyes. His reply was short and curt. "Thank you, Mr. Washington. I expect that report to be completed and filed by tomorrow morning."

Xerxes stood up and turned to leave, but was halted by a sharp retort from the medical officer. "That's it?! Don't you feel anything about what you just heard?"

The second in command turned back and looked at the other man over his shoulder. The penetrating stare made Jett shutter internally and quelled any further comment that was hanging off of his tongue.

"Of course I do," Xerxes finally replied. "What happened was a tragedy, but it happened. The best we can do now is work with what we've got." The man nodded towards the computer on Jett's desk. "Shut that off, we need to conserve as much power as possible. Write your report by hand, and please be as thorough as possible." With that final statement the man turned and left the office, leaving behind a slightly shaken medical officer.

It took a minute for Jett to break his gaze from the door that had just closed behind the other man. He shook his head before pressing the power button on his computer, shutting it off. With a weary sigh, he pulled out some sheets of paper and a pen. He had a report to write, and it was now going to take longer than he had expected.

o~o~o

When Pryce reached the doors to the engine room, he hesitated before entering. He didn't know what he would see when the doors opened. Utter devastation? He knew people must have died in the room he was about to enter, was there still evidence of those deaths left behind? He was beginning to give himself the creeps by thinking of these things, so he decided to just go in before he scared himself off. He stepped forward and when the doors opened, what met him was both everything that he could have expected, and everything that he never wanted to see. The room was in ruin; equipment had been knocked over and there was debris lying scattered all over the floor. In addition, the power converter in front of him had a gaping hole in the side where wires and pieces of shredded metal hung out as if it had been gutted. On a whim he glanced up and the second power converter that was located on the ceiling of the room. It sported an almost identical gaping hole where an explosion had ripped it apart. The entire reaction core was completely still and silent, grey and dead. The whole scene was made even creepier by the fact that only the emergency lights were on, casting a dim light over the room and creating long and jagged shadows that stretched across the floor.

Pryce was truly alarmed by the silence that met his ears. The last time he'd seen the engine not running was the day of the launch... three years ago. Ever since then, whenever he'd entered this room he had been greeted with the soothing thrum of the pulsing core. A reassurance that the ship was alive and well and speeding them towards a bright future full of potential. Now, at the point in time that they most desperately needed their ship in working order, they'd lost the high speed engine. For the longest time Pryce could only stare at the devastation, his heart standing still. All the work and effort he'd put in helping Victor, only for it all to go to waste.

No. His effort hadn't gone to waste, it couldn't have. He was still alive, Victor was badly injured but alive, and his father was alive. All was not lost, not yet. Pryce remembered the purpose of him being here and he set out towards the torn up engine. There must be _something_ he can do.

He had to pick his way through the pieces of debris that lay strewn all over the floor. Thus, it took longer than usual for him to reach his destination. However, once he reached the site of the explosion, he could immediately tell that identifying the cause was not going to be an easy task. Twisted and scorched metal with a few frayed wires was basically all that could be seen. He reached out and grasped a shard of metal and tried to wiggle it free. When it didn't budge, he let go of it and examined the stain of soot it left on his fingers.

He needed to think. What could have caused an explosion like this? The first thing that came to mind was some worn down piece of metal could have failed or a weak spot, such as an insufficient weld or loose screw, could have given way. He couldn't imagine how such a defect could have been overseen with all of the inspections that had been done over the last couple of days, but mistakes did happen. And so with new found determination, Pryce dug into the mess.

Half an hour later and Pryce had yet to make any kind of progress in his investigation. He had zero experience with this sort of thing and pretty soon he was tired, frustrated, covered in soot and scratches, and his head was beginning to ache again. He sat down for a rest, leaning back against the broken machine. His brief moment of hope and determination was quickly ebbing away. How could he be certain that it was even _possible_ to determine the cause of such a disaster? All he knew was that there had been an explosion. Did it really matter how it had been caused? As he stared up and the gaping hole in the engine, Pryce realized that maybe it didn't. Maybe all that mattered was picking up the pieces and getting everything running again, if _that_ was even possible. He could help with that too, but not right now. He needed Victor's guidance for that. He'd been the engineer's apprentice for a year, and he had loads of experience making sure things were in working order and doing minor fixes, but he wasn't so confident that he could rebuild an entire engine.

For a long while Pryce continued to stare up and the engine. He felt a little better with himself now that he had a new resolution, but his mind still wondered back to the explosion itself. _Something_ had caused it, that was for sure, and he wanted to believe that if he just thought about it long enough then he could figure out the answer. So what did he know about engine failures? Well, first of all this was not a normal engine like what would be used in a car, but then again he didn't learn anything about engineering on a normal engine. So what did he know about _this _engine? It dealt with antimatter, a highly volatile substance when it came in contact with regular matter. It utilized controlled explosions by colliding the antimatter with normal matter to create energy, but those collisions occurred up in the main reactor, not down here in the power converter. However, the converter is used to store massive amounts of energy to fuel the thrusters of the ship. So... perhaps an electrical surge? Or, on the other hand, maybe the cooling system had failed. Or a screw could have gotten loose or a repair team could have overlooked some worn out parts.

Pryce sighed and bumped his head against the metal surface behind him. It was all very possible, but he couldn't know for sure. He didn't know how else the engine could have failed, let alone blown apart.

_Bomb_. The word flitted through his mind faster than he could register the ramifications of such a thing. It took a moment for him to fully comprehend the possibility, but when he did a sick feeling entered his gut and he shook his head. No, that couldn't be it. He understood that mistakes happen, but there was _no way_ that he, Victor, or anyone else could have overlooked something like that. Besides, what motive would be behind such a villainous act? None that he could think of.

At least an hour must have passed since he'd entered this room. Pryce looked around, that eerie feeling coming over him again as the dead silence pressed in on him. Perhaps it was time to leave. Besides, all the thinking he'd been doing had only caused his headache to grow worse. If his father hadn't gotten back to their room yet, maybe he had time to make it back and make it seem as if he'd never left.

He was about to stand up when without warning, all of the lights in the room shut off on their own. Pryce froze as he was plunged into blackness, a sickening feeling rising up from his stomach. For several seconds he didn't move, didn't dare breath, as he waited for something to happen. The moments stretched on and when nothing changed, Pryce realized the lights weren't coming back on.

Unnerved, Pryce stood up, deciding that he _really_ wanted to be out of this room now. It was impossible to see in the inky blackness, but he knew where the door was supposed to be, and so he started to make his way towards it, trying to be as quiet as possible. He walked slowly enough so that whenever he felt his foot touch a piece of debris on the floor, he was able to step around it carefully. However, he was nervous and unsteady and when he accidentally kicked a piece of twisted metal, the resulting screech and clatter of it skittering across the floor made him stop and flinch. He stood and waited for the sound to die out, daring to glance around at the darkness that surrounded him. Finally he urged himself to move onward. At this point the door had to be right in front of him, so he stretched his arms out and was immensely relieved when his fingers touched the cool, smooth metal of the door. But it wasn't opening automatically like it should be. Well, the ship, or at least this part of the ship, was obviously suffering from a power outage, so maybe the door had locked itself. So he carefully felt his way along the surface of the door until he felt the control panel that was located next to it. It was turned off and Pryce had no idea how to turn it on, if there even was a way. Desperate, he punched in the override code that had been given to him when he first became Victor's assistant. Nothing happened and the door didn't budge.

Suddenly a chill ran down his spine and Pryce quickly turned around. He couldn't see a thing. The engine room was completely dead silent and dark. And he was trapped inside.


End file.
